t»5i UV..\ m '&.■* mm SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE LIBRARY. Section,.. Xo. izLzqo. TEMPERANCE ESSAYS, SELECTIONS FROM DIFFERENT AUTHORS, COLLECTED AND EDITED By EDWARD C. DEL AY AN, SOUTH BALLSTON, N. Y. ALSO A TREATISE ON TOBACCO By General JOHN H. COCKE, OF VIRGINIA, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN TEMPERANCE UNIOJK. LIBRARY^ l^jRGEON GENERALS Of r iuE CCT.-il.-i«3" ALBANY: VAN BENTHUYSEN'S STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 1865. HV 1)3 43-fa CONTENTS. Tract No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5. No. 6. No. 7. No. 8. No. 9. No. 10. No. 11. Page. Presidential Declarations, &c........... 7 The Pathology of Drunkenness (plates).. 17 England's Commerce, &c..............21 Prohibition in Great Britain........... 31 American Temperance Movement.......41 Letter to Genl. J. H. Cocke of Va......53 Tobacco, the Bane of Virginia Husbandry —United Kingdom Alliance......67-101 Beer Trials.........................103 Letter to Mrs. Genl. James Taylor, &c — Comparison between the Dangers aris- ing from Rail Road Travel and the Liquor Trade, &c, &c..........129-140 Temperance of Wine Countries........141 A Thrilling Scene—Another—To Truth- Seekers — Trial of John Burnett— Words of Wisdom from Great and Wise Men—The Little Golden Haired Boy—Executive Committee N.Y. State Temperance Society—Demoralization of the Rebel Armies—Franklin a Water Drinker......................161-174 No. 12. Letter from Mr. Delavan to Gov. King . .175 No. 13. Temperance Lecture No. XI, by Dr. Nott. 187 No. 14. Extract from President Nott's Lecture. .199 No. 15. Sketch by Hon. Wm. II. Seward, &c— Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors— Lord Byron..................207-210 No. 16. Chipman's Report — Sermon from Old Testament—Sermon from New Testa- ment.........................211-217 No. 17. Temperance a Source of National Wealth, 218 No. 18. Reduction in rate of Insurance on Tem- perance Ships—A Good Creature of God.........................230-235 No. 19. London Star and London Times on Tem- perance, &c, &c...................236 No. 20. Schedule of Bible Texts...............243 No. 21. Summary...........................253 TO THE FRIENDS OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE AND PROHIBITION. ------♦♦------ Permit me to inscribe to you the following pages, consisting of articles before published, now republished, and bound to- gether, for preservation, free distribution, or sale. I am almost daily in receipt of letters asking for temperance publications; I see in this an indication of a general move- ment throughout the country. My stock is exhausted ; I have not a copy to one in fifty of the publications issued by the Al- bany Temperance Press during the thirty-five years it has been at work. I have thought a publication like this might be of some value, as a kind of text-book. In each of the articles something may be found of use to those seeking light, on one of the most important, moral and religious questions of this or any other age, being, as I believe, immediately con- nected with the building up of the Saviour's Kingdom on earth, and the welfare and happiness of the human race. EDWARD C. DELAVAN. South Ballston, N. Y., July I, 1864. MOTTOES. (From the English Edition of Dr. Nott's Work, Ac.) " Bias, by importing its own foregone conclusions into the Word of Scrip- ture, and by refusing to see, or to acknowledge, what makes against its own prejudices, has proved the greatest known hindrance to all fair interpreta- tion, and has tended, more than anything else in the world, to check the free course of Divine truth." Bishop Ellicott. " Why refuse homage to just that part of the Divine wisdom to which our own depravity cares not to consent?" Dr. Steudel. " Even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianity, we may be involved in some tremendous error, of which the Christianity of the future will make us ashamed." Vinet. " Each age of the Church has, as it were, turned over a new leaf in the Bible, and found a response to its own wants. We have a leaf still to turn— a leaf not the less new because it is so simple." A. P. Stanley, D. D. . " History leaves no doubt, that amongst the great moral and social influ- ences that preceded the Advent of Christ, a temperance sentiment and reform- ation must be numbered. It is now as of old. The Church can conquer vice by becoming ' a city set on a hill'—lifted up visibly to a living moral eleva- tion, which shall stand out in unmistakable contrast to the worldly, sensual conduct of existing profession—and in no other way. An abiding sense of religious duty is only possible under the reign of true temperance; since the spirit of wine is essentially incompatible with the influence of the Divine Spirit. UNTIL THE CHURCH LEARNS THIS TRUTH, ITS HISTORY WILL BE ONE OF ALTERNATE CONQUEST AND COLLAPSE—OF SPASMODIC SUCCESS INSTEAD OF CONTINUOUS ADVANCE. Dr. F. R. Lees. : "The progress of Temperance science is like that of other branches of science, speculative and practical. At whatever point science conflicts with prejudice, ignorance, interest, appetite, or superstition, it will excite the hostility of the human mind darkened by these influences. Chemistry, astronomy, geography, political economy, geology, and even such movements as those organized for the circulation of the Bible and the extinction of slavery, have all in turn had to pass through the ordeal of sharp, acrid, and continuous controversy; each in turn has been virulently opposed on biblical ,or on religious grounds; and each in turn has taken its place amongst the settled verities of the universe, or the moral and social necessities of the age. Some may lament all this; I do not, but accept it as the providential and necessary method for tho development of truth and the enlargement of the human soul. Life is a battle, and the advent of truth as certainly brings the sword of controversy into play for the destruction of error and its bane- ful practices, as it ultimately brings a peaceful harvest of positive blessings. It is weakness and folly, if not cowardice, for the friends of light to decline the inevitable conflict. Sooner or later every question must be probed to the bottom—and why not this?"—Ibid. No. 1. PRESIDENTIAL DECLARATIONS, ETC, Being satisfied from observation and experience, as well as from medical testimony, that Ardent Spirits, as a drink, is not only needless, hut hurt- ful, and that the entire disuse of it would tend to promote the health, the virtue, and the happiness of the community, we hereby express our convic- tion, that should the citizens of the United States, and especially the young men, discontinue entirely the use of it, they would not only promote their own personal benefit, but the good of our country and the world. JAMES MADISON, JOHN TYLER, ANDREAV JACKSON, Z. TAYLOR, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, MILLARD FILLMORE, M. VAN BUREN, JAMES K. POLK, FRANKLIN PIERCE, JAMES BUCHANAN, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ANDREW JOHNSON. CORRESPONDENCE. Albany, December 1, 1862. To the Chaplain, (if none) to the Colonel, Lieut. Colonel, or any Officer in the Regiment: The object in sending this parcel of 500 of the Appeal is, to place a copy in the hands of every Officer and Soldier in your Regiment. Parcels are made up for all Regiments. I make no suggestion as to the manner of dis- tribution, but would respectfully recommend, that before making it, the following letters, and the certificate above, should be read to the companies or the Regiment. The certificate of eleven Presidents I deem interesting as well as instructive. When I obtained the signatures of the first three, about thirty years since, by a personal visit to each, the movement against Alcohol, as a beverage, was confined to distilled spirit; then the impression was general that fermented drinks were safe, in moderation; but science has since settled the question, that Alcohol is exactly the same poison, in what are termed fer- mented drinks, as in distilled; indeed, that in both, it is formed by fermen- tation, and that there would be no impropriety in calling all kinds of intox- icating drinks ardent spirits. Pure brandy is distilled from wine, and should be called distilled wine. It would be very gratifying to be informed as to the result of this effort to promote the cause of Temperance in the Army. Respectfully, yours, EDWARD C DELAVAN. Note.—The edition for the army having been printed, it lias been suggested that this document might do good outside the camp; when thus dislributed; may 1 not hope those receiving it, after perusal, will preserve ani circulate >t- E. C. D. 8 LETTERS FROM PROMINENT GENTLEMEN. Extract of a letter from Maj. Gen. Dix. Fort Monroe, November 1, 1862. My Dear Sir:—I decidedly approve of your intention to publish for circulation, such an address to the army as you describe. Let it be short. I am sincerely yours, EawARD C. Delavan, Esq. JOHN A. DIX. Letter from Lieut. Gen. Scott. New York, November 11, 1862. My Dear Sir:—Much indisposed, and yet much occupied, I have read your excellent address to the army, which, I hope, may be read and re-read by every officer and man in it. It could not fail to do much good to efficiency and moral discipline; for drinking and drunkenness, among the rank and file of an army, soon become one and the same thing, and drunkenness destroys subordination, discipline and efficiency. My sentiments on this subject cannot be too strongly stated, and conse- quently I do not object to your quotation of a remark of mine many years ago. With the greatest esteem, truly yours, E. C Delavan, Esq. WINFIELD SCOTT. Archbishop Hughes writes: " I approve highly of the purpose to which your tract is devoted, viz : the diminution, if not the abolition, of intemperance in the army and every- where else." Note.—At the last interview I had with this venerable man, now no more, he said to me : " I have read all your publications, and approve of all the principles you have advanced, except one, and that is not as important to the Roman Catholic church as to the Protest ant." I slated to him that it had been one of the devices of my oppo- nents, to place me, it" possible, in a false position before the public, and then hold ma to it, as if it was really mine. To what point do you refer? He replied, "llie Communion question." This good man really had received the idea that [ was opposed to the use of wine at the Lord's supper. When I slated to him that such a thought had never entered into my head; that inasmuch as the proof was positive that at the time the Lord's supper was instituted, various kinds of wine were recog- nized, good and bad; intoxicating wine, ''the mo?ker," the unintoxicating a blessing. I expressed a belief that the unintoxicating was more suitable for use on an occasion so sacred. The Archbishop at once replied in the most emphatic maimer, " You are right." [May 2, 1SC4.] Letter from Rev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College. E. C. Delavan, Esq.—My Dear Sir:—Your " address " to the army has been received and read to me, and meets my entire approbation. My prayer is, that it may be blessed to every officer and soldier. Very truly your friend, Union College, Nov. 17, 1862. ELIPH'T NOTT. Letter from Rev. Dr. Wayland, of the Baptist denomination. Providence, November 18, 1S62. My Dear Mr. Delavan :—I have read your address to our army with the deepest interest. Its facts are as unanswerable as its arguments are con- vincing. I hope that it may be extensively read by all the army, both officers and men, and that the Spirit of God may attend it with a blessing from on high. May it thus tend to stay the ravages of intemperance, which I fear are awful among our soldiers. I am, my dear Mr. Delavan, yours truly, E. C. Delavan, Esq. F. WAYLAND. LETTERS PROM PROMINENT GENTLEMEN. 9 Letter from Rt. Rev. Bishop Mcllvaine, of Ohio. Cincinnati, November 21, 1862. My Dear Sir :—I am thankful that anybody of influence will labor to promote temperance in the army; but especially that a gentleman of your thorough acquaintance with the subject, and experience in the modus oper- andi, is so engaged. We hear much of want of discipline in the men, and of efficiency in the officers—of surprises, and stragglers, and prisoners taken when they should not be, and of many still worse evils. What hand drink has in all of them—drink, with or without intoxication, who can measure ? I hope, dear sir, you will carry out your plan of circulating the well prepared address of which you have sent me a copy, and may God bless it with great usefulness among those to whose devotedness to their country we are all so indebted. Yours, very respectfully, CHAS. P. McILVAINE. Letter from the Rt. Rev. Bishop McCloskey, of Albany N. Y. Albany, November 21, 1862. My Dear Mr. Delavan:—I have read with much interest your earnest appeal addressed to the officers and soldiers of our army, in favor of temper- ance ; and I most sincerely hope that it may be productive of beneficial results. It is not to be doubted that there is hardly any evil to which the soldier is more exposed—hardly any more dangerous and fatal, either in tent or field— than the terrible evil of intemperance. And it is equally undoubted, that its surest preventive as well as only effectual remedy, after God's grace, is total abstinence from the use of all intoxicating drinks. With best wishes and regards, I remain, Dear Sir, Your friend and obed't servant in Xt., E. C. Delavan, Esq. tJ0HN, Bp. of Albany. Note —There appears to be but one feeling, and that of gratification, on the part of Protestants as well as Catholics, that the mantle of Archbishop Hughes is to fall upon Bishop McCloskey. It will be perceived that this Reverend Ecclesiastic takes the ground that " Total Abstinence " is the only cure for the mighty evil under which the world totters and groans. [May 2, 1364.] Letter from Hon. Erastus Coming, M. C. Albany, November 25, 1862. Enw. C. Delavan, Esq.—My Dear Sir.—I have perused your appeal to the Army, and approve of it. If you carry out the plan for its circulation as suggested, I doubt not great good will follow. Your assured friend, ERASTUS CORNING. Note from Hon. Ira Harris, U. S. Senator. Albany, November 25, 1862. I most cordially and earnestly unite in commending the effort which Mr. Delavan is about making to reduce and mitigate the evils of intemperance in the Army. IRA HARRIS. From the Rev. Dr. E. S. Janes, Bishop of the M. E. Church. New York, Dec. 1, 1862. E. C. Delavan, Esq.—My Dear Sir.—I deem the circulation of your " Address to the Army of theUnited States " of the highest importance to the welfare of the soldiers. It furnishes to them what they much need and 10 LETTERS FROM PROMINENT GENTLEMEN. strongly desire—" Something to read." It also gives them a timely, judi- cious and friendly warning of a terrible peril to which they are all seriously exposed. I believe the army will appreciate your philanthropy in favoring them with the document. Yours, with much esteem, E. S. JANES. Letter from the Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, Episcopal Bishop of Penn. My Dear Mr. Delavan:—I have received your "Appeal to the Army." It is most seasonable. What untold and incalculable disasters, disgrace and death would have fleen averted, if our entire army, officers and men, had acted on the principle of Total Abstinence. The evil is most alarming, and threatens, in the future, consequences to the nation and to families which cannot be measured. May God bless your effort to arrest it. Yours faithfully, Philadelphia, Dec. 10, 1862. ALONZO POTTER. Letter from the Rev. Dr. Hawes, of the Congregationalists. Hartford, Dec. 31, 1862. My Dear Mr. Delavan:—Your excellent and timely address to the army of the United States, which I have just read, has my entire approbation. Let it have the widest circulation both in and outside of the camp. The facts and reasonings which it contains, cannot fail to awaken interest and draw forth thought in the minds of all who read it; and though it may not, and will not entirely root out the " tremendous evil " against which it is directed, it will most assuredly accomplish great good in putting the officers and soldiers of our army on their guard against one of the greatest and most ruinous temptations to which they are exposed. Affectionately, and truly yours, J. HAWES. From the Rev. Dr. Pohlman, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Minis- terium of the State of New York.. Albany, Dec. 31, 1862. My Dear Sir:—I am much obliged to you for the privilege of.reading your " Appeal to the Army of the United States," on the subject of Tem- perance. It seems to me that it must be productive of much good wherever read, and especially among the brave men who are now so heroically bat- tling for the Union, the Constitution and the Laws. As ever, yours sincerely. HENRY N. POHLMAN. Letter from the Venerable Thomas De Witt, of the Reformed Dutch Church. New York, Jan. 1, 1863. E. C. Delavan, Esq.—Dear Sir.—I have received yours, with the accom- panying document. The object proposed by you is an important and excell- ent one. You are at liberty to attach my name to any paper recommending it. I trust a blessing will attend the effort to counteract the great evil spreading through our army. Yours truly, THOMAS DE WITT. TO THE ARMY. 11 TO THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. Officers and Soldiers: I have been requested to prepare an appeal to the Army of the United States, officers and privates, in favor of Temperance. I have been assured the motive would be appreciated. Permit me to express to you my astonishment and wonder at what has taken place since the first gun was fired in this terrible war. Your antagonists have been as fearless and as brave as you are; but the great and remarkable fact is, that you, to the number of about a million of men, have given up voluntarily your domestic pursuits, your homes, relatives and friends, to yield your lives, if need be, on the battle field, for your country's sake.....Words cannot do j ustice to the sub- limity of this wonderful fact. The historian will record it to your never ending fame. I am well aware how delicate a point it is, for an individual to advise as to the personal habits of even his own brother. This difficulty may be surmounted by your considering me your Physician on Alcohol, as well as your brother in the bonds of our common humanity. I can assure you, I have studied for about thirty-five years the effect of Alcohol on the human system, and my experience and advice may benefit some of you. Let me commence by r ssuring you, that even in pure intoxicating wine, beer, cider, as well as all kinds of distilled spirit, Alcohol is the substance for which all these various liquors are desired and drunk. Let us see what Alcohol is. We will begin by acknowledging it to be a good creature of God, for certain purposes; but never good for pour- ing down one's throat as a beverage, any more than burning coals are good to be taken into your hands. It is classed by medical and scien- tific men of the highest grade, as a poison, and if prescribed as a med- icine, should be prescribed with as much care as any other poison. But is is a most dangerous remedy at any rate, and millions of drunk- ards have been made by the unguarded prescription of alcohol by their physicians. Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, in his great work on medical jurisprudence, remarks: "that alcohol, whether found in rum, brandy or wine, is a poison, is conceded on all hands." European, as well as numerous American physicians and chemists, fully support Dr. Beck. Kev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College—yet living—an abstainer of half a 12 TO THE ARMY. century or more, and now about ninety years of age, says: "that pure alcohol is a poison, is an admitted fact." Shakespeare, in Othello, says: " 0 thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee Devil! " That " invisible spirit " is alco- hol, which the great enemy of mankind has so long employed as a decoy to ruin such vast numbers of the human race. The ancient Greeks, instead of saying " the man is drunk," were in the habit of saying " the man is poisoned." Our word intoxication is derived from the Greek word toxicon, which signifies poison. That eminent French physician, Broussais, about fifty years since, discov- ered that, by the repeated use of alcoholic wine, a diseased state of the Stomach was produced. The late eminent physician, Dr. Sewall of Washington, after deep study, and numerous dissections, prepared a drawing of the moderate drinker's stomach, showing conclusively that such drinking brought on an incipient disease of the stomach, and if continued, would induce diseases of various kinds, and ultimately, in many cases, death by delirium tremens. Those celebrated anato- mists, Drs. Warren, Mott and Horner, of this country, at the time, sustained Dr. Sewall in his position; and now, within a year or two, and after the most labored examination and experiments, celebrated chemists and physicians in France and England, have also sustained Dr. Sewall, proving beyond question, that alcohol is a poison, and should be treated as such by every one. God, the highest of all authorities, says wine (intoxicating) " wine is a mocker," not much, or little, but, " it is a mocker." No man can drink this mocker in health without being mocked by it, in the degree he permits himself to use it. The London times says, wine (alluding to weak French wine) is less poisonous than gin. The polite commander of one of the forts near Washington, recently informed me, that since government had prohibited the entrance of strong drink within the lines, drinking had diminished therein nine- tenths; still, there is some smuggling of liquors, and this, said he, " makes the men who drink it mad." I have thus far only alluded to pure intoxicating drink; the poison, alcohol, in it, alone makes it intoxicating. 1 conclude the strong drink smuggled into the camps, is made and concocted (in addition to poison alcohol), of drugs of the most deadly and life-destroying character, and that none but a crazy man would drink it were he made certain TO THE ARMY. 13 of the real character of this smuggled "fire water." You maybe sure, that ninety-nine hundredths of all the strong drinks now con- sumed, from the (so called) choice wines of the high and fashionable down to the whiskey of the soldier, are so fabricated as to cheapen the article and prevent the most conceited judge from detecting the fraud. The Rev. Dr. Nott, says in his admirable lectures: "I had a friend who had been himself a wine dealer, and having read the start- ling statements made public in relation to the brewing of wines and the adulterations of liquors generally, I inquired of that friend as to the verity of these statements. His reply was: ' God forgive me for what has passed in my own cellar, but the statements made are true, all true, I assure you.' " Dr. Lewis Beck, an eminent chemist, was engaged three months in analyzing a large private stock of wine, supposed to be of the best and purest quality. He found all adulterated, not fit to be used as a bev- erage or for medicine, and they were consequently destroyed. The government lias now, in its benevolence, prohibited the spirit ration in the navy as well as in the army. Why has it done this ? It is because it has come to the knowledge that intoxicating drinks, as a beverage, are intoxicating poisons. Soldiers, ponder over the battles that have been fought during this unfortunate war. Ask yourselves how many engagements would have terminated more favorably to the honor of our beloved country, if all of you (officers and men) had been total abstainers from the use of intoxicating drinks. It is also a remarkable fact, well worthy of your careful considera- tion, that, in the armies of all nations, the most distinguished generals and officers have been men of temperate habits. Promotion seldom fulls to the lot of the intemperate. If you do not wish to disappoint your friends, who are anxious for your advancement, by all means avoid, as your worst enemy, the intoxicating cup. Very many years since, Gen. Scott assured me, that he had rather march at the head of 5,000 temperance men, than at the head of two or three times that number of topers. After perusing this appeal, he writes, " I hope it will be read, and re-read, by every officer and man in the army." Major General Dix has forwarded me General Orders No. 11, author- izing its publication. 2 14 TO THE ARMY. Head-Quarters, Middle Deaartmext, 1 Baltimore, Md. April 16, 1SG-J. ] * * * The Commanding General cannot pass by litis court, without a few words of admonition to the officers under his command. Two commissioned officers have been found guilty of drunkenness by this court, and dismissed the service, and not a court martial is held without having such cases before it ; every sentence in these cases, however severe, will be carried out with the utmost rigor. Drunkenness is the bane of military profession ; il has gained a strong foothold in the commissioned grades, and the Commanding General is constrained to believe that il is to be traced in some instances to the bad examples which the older officers set to the younger by drinking in their presence, and inviting them to drink in their tents and quarters at all hours of the day. Moreover, the influence of these examples upon the 11011-commissior.ed officers and privates is pernicious in the extreme. Nine-tenths of all the crimes and offences for which officers and soldiers are brought 1o trial, are the fruits of this degrading and ungentlemauly vice ; and the Commanding General earnestly appeals to the officers tinder his command, in the name of the honorable profession of arms, which it is the'r duty to preserve from all taint, and in the name of the distracted country in whose service they are imperiling their lives in banish from their encampments and quarters all intoxicating liquors, which add no vigor either to their mental or physical powers, and which are a certain source of demor- alization, and often of indelible disgrace. * * * By command of Major General DIX. D. T. Van Buren, Aas'l A'lj't General. [Offcial.] Some people yet consider strong beer as one of the great blessings of life; but did space allow me to spread before you all theficts I have in possession as to the use of the most filthy water, as well as the most poisonous drugs in the manufacture of malt and beer, you would hes- itate long before you would touch a drop of it. And here permit me to add, that plrysicians, in thi< and other countries, have testified in the most emphatic manner, that when sickness overtakes the drinker of intoxicating liquors, his chance of recovery is not near as good as if he had confined his drink to water. Aside from the moral degradation rioMing from the use of strong drink in its effects upon life, character, &c, &c, its drain upon the purse is enormous. It has been computed by an individual, who, about thirty-five years ago, abandoned the use of all intoxicating drinks, and who, at that time, was cxponding at the rate of about .$1,000 a year in the purchase of wines, &c , that in thirty-five j^ears, at compound interest, it would have amount.d to the sum of s-147,(372.69. Now, soldiers have leisure at times, so have officers; let them see if this calculation is cor- rect. Provided by government with liberal compensation, food and cloth- ing, the soldier need scarcely expend a dollar of his pay. Let him make a calculation what the saving would be by abstaining from strong drink, to the amount of five or ten cents only per day, for a year, and so on for any term of years, compounding the interest, and he TO THE ARMY. 15 will find how easy it is to keep poor and wretched by the use of this poison, and how easy to become independent, if industrious, by giving it up entirely. And now brethren of the United States Army, officers and men, who still use intoxicating drinks as a beverage, why will you not adopt my principles and practice ? While I was a moderate drinker, I made a mental resolution (after reading a temperance tract placed under my plate by an unknown hand,) that I would for one month try the experiment of total absti- nence from all intoxicating drinks. Much to my astonishment I found it a severe trial. The poison had almost become a necessity, without my being conscious of it. This month gave me the victory over appetite, and the experiment has made me a total abstainer ever since, and may have saved me a drunkard's fate. Drinkers, moderate or immoderate drinkers, please try the like experiment, and my prayer is that it may influence you as it did me. It is an historical fact, that after the war of the revolution, officers and men in great numbers returned to their homes, victims to strong drink, and became a disgrace to their families and to their country, and vast numbers of them died at last, miserable drunkards. This is the great fear in regard to our present army, when disbanded after peace, with the Union restored. May this fear never be realized in a single case, but may officers and men return with minds and bodies unim- paired by the use of alcholic drinks, that they who desire to enter upon civil pursuits, may engage in them with capital saved, and with such principles and habits, as will enable them effectually to assist in making onr beloved country one of the purest and strongest of the nations of the earth, the home and refuge of the poverty-stricken and oppressed of all lands. It is impossible in a brief document like this, to do justice to an issue involving interests so overwhelming to indi- viduals and nations, as that of true temperance—total abstinence from all that can intoxicate. It is a question involving the morals of a nation, as well as its prosperity in a financial point of view, It is a question well worthy of the serious consideration of the rulers of all nations, of all statesmen, political economists, philanthropists and Christians. The saving of only one cent a day to each of our*popula- tionof 31,000,000, in the use of intoxicating drink, would amount in a single year to §113,150,000, and pay the interest of near three 16 TO THE ARMY. thousand millions of dollars of public debt, at five per cent. IIow we all dread the public taxes, but how little we think of the enormous tax we lay upon ourselves, in the purchase of articles, the use of which, tends to produce disease, poverty, crime and premature death. I have only aimed to draw your thoughts to this great question, and with the hope that God will bless the words I send you, to your present, future and everlasting good. I am, Very truly, your friend, EDWARD C. DELAVAN. Albany, December 1, 1862. Note.—About 1,000,000 of this document have been circulated. It is reprinted in this form, more especially to perpetuate -'the Presidential Declaration," and the endorscrm :>t of the principle' contained in the addre-s "To the Army of the United Slates," which contains every principle, I believe, which has been advanced by ihe friends of temperance during the progress of the reform. 3STo. 2. ---------■»-♦---------- THE PATHOLOGY OF DRUNKENNESS. THE STOMACH IN VARIOUS STAGES, From Health to Death by Delirium Tremens. These diagrams are taken from drawings made from actual dissections in 1842, by Dr. Sewall, of Washington, D. C. Perfect accuracy is not claimed, as no two cases would probably present exactly the same appearance ; but it is claimed that they give a truthful illustration of the ravages resulting from the introduction of the poison, alcohol, into the healthful stomach, and forever settle the question that the injury commences with the first glass—with the mode- rate (falsely termed temperate) use of this poison. Before these representations were submitted to the public in 1842, those celebrated surgeons, Dr. Warren, of Boston, Dr. Mott, of New York, and Dr. Horner, of Philadelphia, endorsed them. In 1843, after a lengthened discussion as to the principle more especially involved in the second sto- mach in the series, the same distinguished anatomists re- endorsed them, and recommended universal circulation for the instruction of all classes. Correspondence between the Executive Committee of tlie New York State Temperance Society, and Drs. Warren, Mott, and Horner, in relation to the republication of I>r. Sewall's Pathology of Wrunkenness, for tne use of Schools. Gentlemen— The Executive Committee of the New York State Temperance Society having it in contemplation to re- publish, for the use of the Common Schools in the State of New York, Doctor Sewall's Pathology of Drunkenness, (the same to be accompanied with his Drawings of the Human Stomach, as affected by the use of intoxicating liquors, from the first inception of disease occasioned thereby, to death by 18 THE PATHOLOGY OF DRUNKENNESS Delirium Tremens,) hereby request your consent to the re- publication of the original testimonials severally given by you in favor of said work ; and that you will accompany such consent with an expression of your opinion in relation to the tendency of temperate drinking, as defined by Doctor Sewall, to produce such an incipient disease as Plate No. II. (labelled the Temperate Drinker's Stomach) is intended to exhibit and illustrate. PHILIP PHELPS, IRA HARRIS, AZOR TABER, BARENT P. STAATS, I. N. WYCKOFF, B. T. WELCH, ERASTUS CORNING, BRADFORD R. WOOD, S. W. DANA, Executive Committee. Dr. Warren's Keply. Understanding that " Doctor Sewall's Pathology of Drunk- enness " is about to be republished, I cordially agree to the re- publication in this work of the testimonial I gave some years ago to its utility and faithfulness. I can also add to that tes- timonial the expression of my opinion, that temperate drink- ing, as defined by Dr. Sewall, has a tendency to alter the con- dition of the mucous membrane of the stomach, and give origin to that state of it which is represented in Doctor Sewall's Plate No. II. JOHN C. AVARREN. Boston, December 2, 1843. Dr. Mott's Reply. Finding that it is the intention of the New York State Temperance Society to republish Doctor Sewall's Pathology of Drunkenness, with the Prints of the Human Stomach, for the benefit of the Common Schools in our State, I am happy to repeat my hearty recommendation of this great and good work, and to add, that it is my full conviction THE PATHOLOGY OP DRUNKENNESS. 19 that the pernicious practice of even temperate drinking, as set forth by Doctor Sewall, cannot be too severely repro- bated. By whomsoever this is practiced, it will be found to be the beginning of that sad derangement of the mucous membrane represented in Plate No. IL, which will sooner or later lead to the most disastrous results. VALENTINE MOTT. New York, December 5, 1843. Dr. Horner's Reply. The New York State Temperance Society having desired an additional expression of opinion from me on the subject of Doct. Sewall's plates, being his Pathology of Drunken- ness, this is to certify that since my original communica- tion to the learned Professor, and also my letter of March 11, 1843, to E. C. Delavan, Esq., I have seen no reason to modify or retract sentiments advanced on these occasions. On the contrary, I now renew them with a pleasure in- creased at the progress of the cause they are intended to support, and at the admirable improvement this cause has made in the condition of individuals and of families. That a reformation was needed in the customs of society in regard to inebriating drinks, no one ought to doubt ; and that this reformation, limited as it yet is, has done incalcu- lable good, must be apparent to every sincere inquirer into its present state. A wide circulation of Doctor Sewall's valuable Plates, by infusing a just dread and abhorrence of intoxication into the minds of all having their understand- ings now matured, will of course, by the influence of ex- ample, deter the rising generation from the dangerous prac- tice of even temperate drinking, as thus defined and illus- trated; and I shall therefore be glad to witness their greater extension. W. E. HORNER, M. D. Philadelphia, December 6, 1843. 20 TnE PATHOLOGY OF DRUNKENNESS. Letter from the Private Secretary of Prince Albert, Vvixsor Castle, November 5, 1843. Sir—I am commanded by His Royal Highness Prince Albert, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 1st September, and to return you His Royal Highness' sincere thanks for the set of Dr. Sewall's Drawings of the Human Stomach as affected by drinking, which you have been so good as to send, and which His Royal Highness thinks are admirably calculated to deter persons from giving way to the abominable vice of drunkenness. It gave His Royal Highness much pleasure to hear of the success with which they have been used in America, which makes him anxious that the same success may attend them here. I am also to thank you for the kind expressions vou have used to his Royal Highness personally, and I beg to remain, Sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, E. C. Delavan, Esq. G. E. ANSON. Westminster Review, LondoD, &c, &c, This influential Review, in 1855, defended the moderate use of alcohol in health, as necessary, indeed, as food for the body. Prof. Youmans, and others, of the United States, and learned writers in Great Britain, exposed the fallacy of this posit ion. Now, in 1860, this same Journal magnanimously acknowledges that recent scientific French investigators of the highest rank, have exploded this doc- trine, asserting that alcohol is a poison, and always pernicious as a beverage in health. By the use of alcohol, they say : " The pathological alterations are very vivid inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach." " Very lately," says Dr. James McCulloch, of Scotland, "Messrs. Lalle- mand, l'errin and Duroy in Fiance, and Dr. Edward Smith, LL. B., F. R. S., in London, have published a number of carefully conducted experiments, and most important discoveries, proving that alcohol undergoes no change in the body, it being expelled unchanged by the lungs, skin and kidneys;'" and that, in the words of Dr. Smith, " it should be prescribed medicinally, as carefully as any other poisonous agent." The Hrilish Medica Journal, lately in a leader, appears willing to accept the improved scientific status quo as touching alcohol. It says : *' The sub- ject of the use of ale >hol is daily becoming one of more importance. The question of its influence on the body in health is being daily canvassed by the chemist and physiologist; and, as far as their lights reach, it would seem that not only is alcohol not of service to the body, but is actually injurious." DMfiKAMS OF TW wmmUJEVARlWH IWJWTiia^, Death "by Delirium Tremens ZirA. of P. Km He/irkw/Jen-jiiCxiny. £7uj.a(m Stone fyslIjUe.. No. 3. COMPARATIVE TEMPERANCE VIEW 01" ENQL^ND'S COMMERCE, TAXATION AND CHARITIES. INTRODUCTION. Albany, January 6th, 1864. To Members of Congress— Gentlemen: Now, that the question is under consideration of advancing the tax on tobacco and intoxicating drink, I take the liberty of enclosing to members of Congress a brief docu- ment on British taxation, &c., &c. Prohibition of the sale of intoxicating drink, as a beverage, as also of tobacco, would, in my opinion, not only be humane, but the true policy of governments. But such prohibition can only be sustained where a large proportion of the people are convinced that the principle is sound, and stand ready to sus- tain it, not only by vote, in the courts, but by the practice of total abstinence. While discussing the question of excise Lord Chesterfield, in his address before the house of Lords, 125 years ago, touched the point exactly. He said: " luxury my lords, is to be taxed, but vice prohibited, let the difficulty of the law be what it will. Luxury, or that which is pernicious by ex- cess, may very properly be taxed, that such excess, though not unlawful, may be made more difficult ; but the use of those things which are simply hurtful in their own nature, and in every degree, are to be prohibited." Imported liquors (as well as domestic), as a general rule, are mere vile adulterations, and poisonous. How wise it would 22 BRITISH TAXATION, ETC. be in Congress, to order to the public stores all imported liquors, there to be tested by reliable chemists, and if found to be fabricated, through the agency of poisonous drugs, have them destroyed. No act would be more merciful, just and popular. There are no articles of trade, which produce so great a percentage of profit, especially by retail, as tobacco and in- toxicating drink. Take the wholesale price of all kinds of strong drink, and then estimate the price by the glass, and it will be seen the profit is enormous per cent; a very heavy tax could thefore be sustained on all kinds of intoxicating liquors and on tobacco. Should the tax be placed so high as to di- minish income by diminished use, let it be remembered, that in proportion to such diminution, crime, pauperism, domestic tax- ation, and a host of other evils, would be also diminished, and a vastly increased demand for other taxable commodities, use- ful and beneficial, would be created. A famine was once feared in Ireland ; the Government, by way of precaution, prohibited, for one year, the destruction of grains by the distillers and brewers. A lessened revenue was anticipated, but a greater was realized by the lessened con- sumption of strong drink, and by an increased use of healthful and useful taxable articles. A very recent report comes to our shores from the famished districts of Lancashire, England, I quote in brief: " One very remarkable fact presents itself with this period of destitution. It is the astounding decrease of crime ; as poverty has in- creased, crime has diminished. It is a common thing to have a session where not a crime is brought before the magistrate." Very respectfully your ob't servant, EDWARD C. DELAVAN. TEMPERANCE STATEMENTS OF BRITISH TAXATION, &c., &c. ■-------*♦-------- The great Temperance Reform of the present century was sent to England from the United States. That nation has responded gloriously, and the friends of the reform here rejoice to know that in our Father- land so many noble hearts are perseveringly engaged in enlightening the masses. The advance now making in England will aid us when we renew the struggle. The cause will languish here until this gigantic rebellion is put down and the Union restored. When this is achieved the friends of Temperance will renew their labors, until all that man can do will be done to arrest an evil now assuming proportions so vast, that if not checked, will in time sink us to the level with the most degraded nations of the earth. In 1866 there is to be a convention in the State of New York to make any changes in the Constitution desired by the people. The friends of Temperance in the State look forward with the hope that the voters will send such delegates to the convention as will introduce Prohibition into the organic law of the State. Prohibition, thus established, will be beyond the reach of party or party judges ; and when established here, other states, not already prohibitory, will hasten to become so. Prohi bition is now the basis of all laws in all countries with regard to the sale of intoxicating drinks. It prohibits the sale to the masses, and gives commission to a few—for gold—to carry on the work of poisoning their neighbors by wholesale, and filling the poor-house, the prison-house, the grave-yards with victims innumerable, and burdening the temperate and industrious with unequal and unjust taxation. The facts, statistics and arguments which England is spreading before her people, on the great question at issue, are as instructive and as appli- cable to us here, as to the people of that country. The following pages are taken from a work, put forth some years since, by J. S. Buckingham, Member of Parliament. I give them to the public at this time with the hope that good may follow them wherever they go. Could Christians be brought to see it to be their duty to abandon the use of those poisons, named in the highest obelisk, as taxing England to the amount of seventy-seven and a half millions sterling per annum—that obelisk (which represents the origin of vice of every grade) would rapidly diminish, and the charitable one, which now makes such a miserable figure, would rise in proportion as the other would sink. Albany, Jan. 6, 1864. EDWARD C. DELAVAN. MR. BUCKINGHAM'S REMARKS. The accompanying outline engraving will tell its own startling tale, and needs no further expla- nation than will be found on the following pages. The several obelisks and their subdivisions will show the respective amounts expended in each of the branches designated ; and when it is seen that all that can be raised for religious and benevolent societies named, falls short of a million ster- ling, while beer, wine, spirits and tobacco—all unnecessary in the most moderate use, and the source of immense evil when taken in excess— cost the British community nearly eighty millions sterling, or nearer one hundred millions, if illicit distillation and smuggling be added, in actual expenditure, independently of all the enormous charges involved in the maintenance of police, pri- sons, hulks, lunatic asylums, hospitals, workhouses, &c, mainly resulting from intemperance in their inmates—we may well doubt whether, as a people, we are entitled to the praises we so often bestow on ourselves, for our wisdom, piety and philan- thropy, in which we frequently boast that we are superior to all other nations now upon the face of the earth. Our drinking and smoking taxes are half as much again as the entire taxation of the United Kingdom ; twelve times as much as our poor rates; and more than seventy times as much as we give to the twelve largest societies for promoting the cause of religion and morality, whose united annual income does not amount to one million. (Pound sterling about five dollars.) BRITISH TAXATION, &c. &c. CONTRIB CJTIONS TO THE FOLLOWING SOCIETIES. Bible Society ; Church Missionary So- ciety : Wesleyan Missionary Society : Lon- don Missionary Society ; Baptist Mission- ary Society; Religious Tract Society; Christian Knowledge Society: Propaga- tion of the Gospel Society ; Church Pas- toral Aid Society; British aud Foreign School Society ; Home Missionary Society : Sunday School Union. BRITISH TAXATION, &c. -------♦-♦-------- The pyramids are intended to present an idea of the various sums, in their relative proportions, expended by the British people upon different branches of the public service, and upon religious and philanthropic objects, in contrast with those expended upon intoxicating drinks and tobacco. The statements relating to the general taxation and expenditure of the country, military and civil, are taken from the government returns, and those respecting intoxicating drinks and tobacco, from a paper read by Mr. G. R. Porter, of the Board of Trade, before the last meeting of the British Association for the Promotion of Science. It is necessary, how- ever, to observe, that Mr. Porter in this instance only calculates the ex- penditure of the working classes upon the articles referred to, which he estimates at £57,000,000. The following is his statement:— British and colonial spirits............................... £'20.810,209 Brandy................................................. 3/281.2 JO Total of spirits............................ £24,091.4.53 Beer of all kinds, exclusive of that brewed in private families.............................................. 25.3S3.1G5 Tobacco and snuff...................................... 7.568.007 £57.063,230 He docs not include in that calculation £5,000,000 annually spent upon wine, nor does he make any calculation for the immense quantities of spirits supplied by smuggling and illicit distillation, for the quantities of cider and home-brewed beer annually consumed, nor for that which greatly exceeds in amount all these items put together—the enormous quantity added by the adulteration of every kind of intoxicating drink, as well as of tobacco. Had these items been included, the amount for the whole kingdom would have been at least one-fourth more than that which is stated by Mr. Porter ; and at that increased sum it is stated in the large pyramid. To this enormous sum expended in the purchase of alcoholic drinks and tobacco, we must add the loss sustained by the destruction of food every year, which is sufficient to maintain 6,000,000 of our popula- tion. A considerable proportion of the amount paid for poor rates, and also of the large sums annually expended in the prosecution and mainte- nance of our criminal population, must likewise be added. If the cost of strong drinks and tobacco, and the losses in various ways resulting from their use, be thus great, it surely becomes a duty to ascertain what benefits we derive in return. With respect to strong drink we have the following testimony, signed by about 2,000 of our most eminent medical men ■.— BRITISH TAXATION, ETC 27 "We. the undersigned, are of opinion,— " I.—That a very large portion of human misery, including poverty, disease and crime, is induced by the use of alcoholic or fermented liquors, as beverages. ' II-—That the most perfect health is compatible wilh total abstinence from all such intoxicating beverages, whether in the form of ardent spirits, or as wine, ale, porter, cider. &c, &c. "III.—Thai persons accustomed to such drinks, may, with perfect safety, discontinue them entirely, either at once, or gradually after a short time. "IV.—That total and universal abstinence from alcoholic liquors and intoxicating; beverages of all sorts, would greatly contribute to the health, the prosperity, the mo- rality and the happiness of the human race." These views of the utter worthlessness of such drinks as an article of diet, are confirmed by the experience of thousands of working men and others, in all parts of the united kingdom. Of strong drink as an incentive to crime, and a powerfully demoralizing agent, our Judges have frequently spoken in the most decided terms. Amongst others we have the following :— Judge Coleriige : "There is scarcely a crime comes before me that is not, directly or indirectly, caused by strong drink.'''' Judge Gurxey : '• Every crime lias its origin, more or less, in drunkenness." Judge Patteson : " If it were not for this drinking, you (the jury) and I would have nothing to do." Judge Aldersox : " Drunkenness is the most fertile source of crime ; and if it could be removed, the assizes of the country would be rendered mere nullities." Judge Wightmax : "I find in every calendar that comes before me, one unfailing source, directly or indirectly, of most of the crimes that are committed—intemperance." It thus appears that we are annually expending the enormous sum of nearly £80,000,000 sterling on two articles of mere luxury, which are the chief incentives to the vice, misery and wretchedness that afflict our land. Can a stronger case by possibility be made out for the entire abandon- ment of any practice ? To the laboring classes especially, who, it is computed, annually expend half of the before-named sum, we would most earnestly appeal, and entreat them no longer to barter their means of happiness and comfort, of social and moral elevation, for a low, debasing and short-lived gratifica- tion. Were only five millions per annum of the large sum spent in drink de- voted to the purchase of laud, it would afford every year a quarter of an acre each to two hundred thousand laboring men; reckoning the land at £100 sterling per acre. To the friends of religion and morality we would say : Is it wise or Christian to give your support to customs which so powerfully counteract your labors, and which absorb to so large an extent the means you greatly need for enlightening and evangelizirg the world ? Twelve of our largest and most influential religious and philanthropic Societies are unable to raise one million a-year to prosecute their praise- worthy objects, while upwards of seventy millions are annually squan- dered on a hurtful, crime-producing drink. ADULTERATIONS. From Rev. Dr. E. Nott's (LL. D., President of Union College) Sixth Lecture on Temperance. " "Wine indeed, ' falsely so called,' we have in abundance; but names do not alter the nature of things. " The extract of logwood is not less the extract of logwood, nor is the sugar of lead less the sugar of lead, because combined with Jiew England rum, "Western whisky, sour beer, or even Newark cider put up in wine casks, stamped Port, Champagne or Madeira, and sold under the impos- ing sanction of the collector's purchased certificate, passed from hand to hand, and perhaps transmitted from father to son, to give the color of honesty to cool,, calculating, heartless imposition. " 0! it was not from the vineyards of any distant grape-bearing coun- try, that those disguised poisons, sent abroad to corrupt and curse the country, were derived. On the contrary, the ingredients of which they are composed were collected and mingled, and their color and flavor im- parted, in some of those garrets above, or caverns beneath, the observa- tion of men; caverns fitly called ' hells,' where, in our larger cities, fraud undisguised finds protection, and wholesale deeds of darkness are securely and systematically performed. " I do not say this on my own authority. I had a friend who had been himself a wine-dealer; and having read the startling statements made in public in relation to the brewing of wines and the adulteration of liquors generally, I inquired of that friend as to the verily of those statements. His reply was: 'God forgive what has passed in my own cellar, but the STATEMENTS MADE ARE TRUE, TRIE, I assure yOU,' " That friend has since gone to his last account, as have doubtless many of those whose days on earth were shortened by the poisons he dispensed. But I still remember, and shall long remember, both the terms and tone of that laconic answer. " Another ftiend informed me that the executor of a wine dealer, in a ity named, assured him that in the inventory of articles, for the manu- icture of wine found in the cellar of that dealer, and the value of which mounted to many thousand dollars, there was not one dollar for the dee of the grape! And still another friend informed me, that in examin- ;ig, as an assignee, the papers or a house in that city which dealt in wines, and which had stopped payment, he found evidence of the purchase during the preceding year, of hundreds of casks of cider, but none of wine. And yet it was not cider, but ' wine,' which had been supposed to have been dealt out by that house to its confiding customers." THE LIGHT WINE DELUSION. " The abundance of the harvest (in France) in 1858, dimin- ished the poverty, and, by consequence, the crimes and of- fences which misery imposes; but the abundance of the vintage, on the contrary, multiplied blows and wounds, the quarrels of cabarets, the rebellious, and outrages, and vio- lence towards the police. These facts are again found in all analogous circumstances." [Revue d'Economis Chrelienne, Paris, 1862,/>/>. 171-2. Horatio Greenough, the eminent American sculptor, in a letter to a friend, from Florence, in 1838, said: " Many of the more thinking and prudent Italians abstain from the use of wine; several of the most eminent of the medical men are noto- riously opposed to its use, and declare it a poison. When I assure you that one-fifth, and sometimes one-fourth of the earn- ings of the laborers are expended in wine, you may form some idea as to its probable influence on their health and thrift." He also said that the dealers in the weak wines did not hesi- tate to adulterate them in order to add a trifle to their gains. J. Fenimore Cooper, the American novelist, said: " I came to Europe under the impression that there was more drunken- ness among us than in any other country—England, perhaps, excepted. A residence of six months in Paris changed my views entirely." " Light wines," says Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, "nothing so treacherous! They inflame the brain like fire, while melt- ing on the palate like ice. All inhabitants of light-wine countries are quarrelsome." " Oil, thou invisible spirit of wine! if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee DEVIL."—Shakespeare. Cardinal Acton stated, in a letter, in 1839, the Government of Rome had more to fear from the wine shops than from any other source. The Emperor of the French has more to fear from the wine shops than all other sources united. They furnish the material for riot and revolution, and the wine drank in them is the stimulant to every vice. Americans and others visiting the fashionable walks of Paris and other continental cities, seeing but few staggering men, suppose, and honestly suppose, that wine countries are, in a great measure, free from taa ,'i ;c of :ate.i.r.tr:t:r^ but it is a great mistake. RESPONSIBILITY OF MODERATE DRINKERS, More Especially of Christian Moderate Drinkers, WHETHER IN CHURCH OR STATE - The ragged, squalid, brutal drunkard, who raves in the bar-room, consorts with swine in the gutter, or fills with clamour and dismay the cold and comfortless abode, to which, in the spirit of a demon, he returns at night, much as he injures himself, deeply wretched as he renders his family, exerts but little influence in beguiling others into an imitation of his revolting conduct. On the contrary, so far as his example goes, it tends to deter from, rather than allure to, criminal indulgence. From his degradation and his woes, the note of warning is sounded both loud and long, that whoever will may hear it, and hearing, understand. But reputable [careful] Christian wine-drinkers, are the men who send forth, from the high places of society, and sometimes even from the portals of the sanctuary,* an unsuspected, unrebuked, but power- ful influence, which is secretly and silently doing on every side, among the young, among the aged, among even females, its work of death. It is this reputable drinking of these disguised poisons, under the cover of an orthodox Christian name, which encourages youth in their occasional excesses, reconciles the public mind to holiday revel- ries, shelters from deserved reproach the bar-room tippler, and fur- nishes a salvo even for the occasional inquietude of the drunkard's conscience. Regard this conduct as we may, there can be no question how God regards it. He has not left himself without a witness of his dis- pleasure, in any city, town or hamlet, throughout the land. PRESIDENT E. NOTT, D. D. LL. D. * The experience of near forty years has furnished me materials for a vol- ume, and a large one too, of most remarkable and heart-rending incidents, where the examples of moderate drinking Christian men, clergymen, have been the ruin of youth, struggling against a habit which the social drinking usages of society had fastened upon them. No. 4. ------♦*------ PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. ---------------~.--------------- The friends of Prohibition in Great Britain are moving steadily onward in the noble and self-sacrificing work of relieving Her Majesty's subjects from the demoralizing influ- ence of the License System, &c., &c. They have at last reached the National Legislature ; they have now got a foot- hold in the right place, and as they duly estimate the benefi- cial results of final success, in a religious, moral, pecuniary and healthful point of view (if I do not greatly mistake the character of the men engaged in this great and good work), they will not relax their efforts until the object of their labors is accomplished. Every position we have taken in this country, with regard to intoxicating liquors, has been fully sustained in Great Britain, after the most patient research,by large bodies of the Clergy of all denominations, Biblical Scholars, Statesmen, and Physicians, and Chemists of the highest grade. The germ of this great reform planted in this country now about forty years since, has swelled to gigantic proportions all over the civilized world, and is yet destined, as I have faith to be- lieve, to sweep intemperance from the face of the earth. The following documents will serve in some slight degree to enlighten the public mind in this country as to the charac- ter of the struggle now going on in our Father Land, on the question of Prohibition. God grant that the only warfare ever to be carried on between England and America shall be, 32 PROHIBITION IN GREAT BTITAIX. which shall do the most good in promoting the happiness of human beings. While we of the North are straining every nerve to put down a gigantic rebellion, and restore the Union with liberty to all within our borders, it cannot be expected that the cause of Prohibition and Total Abstinence, should occupy the same prominent place as before the war. The people at large now only wait the ending of the war to renew their efforts to es- tablish Prohibition in every State of the Union. In this State there is to be a Constitutional Convention in 1866, to alter or amend the Constitution. The friends of Prohibition are look- ing forward to that year to secure Prohibition in the organic law of the State. It is now time that preliminary steps should be taken to secure the desired result. Twice in years long past, the Temperance cause in the United States languished and appeared to be making no pro- gress. A National Convention at Philadelphia was called at one time ; another at Saratoga Springs, with the most happy results. The debates and resolutions of these Conventions, wide spread, had a vast influence in awaking the whole nation to a simultaneous movement. I understand another National Convention is contemplated. E. C. D. South Ballston, October 1st, 1864. PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. 33 United Kingdom Alliance. Offices : 41 John Dalton Street, ) Manchester, June l&th, 1864. $ Manifesto of the Executive of the United Kingdom Alliance to its Members and Adherents throughout the Nation. Friends and Fellow Helpers : For the first time, the House of Commons has seriously discussed the principle of a Permissive Prohibitory Liquor Law. A stage of progress which it had been predicted would never be reached, has been attained. A second reading has been formally proposed and respectfully debated. The re- sult is known, and a consideration of the facts will show what reason we have for thanking God and taking courage. "When we entered upon the Parliamentary struggle, we were prepared to find an adverse House of Commons. Hostility has been usually manifested to the initiation of the greatest reforms of recent times, and we could not in the first stages expect other treatment for ours. At the last General Elec- tion, our most sanguine and earnest adherents generally con- tented themselves with a pledge, where it could be obtained, to support the first reading of a Bill, in order that an explan- ation of its nature might not be denied. This pledge has, in most cases, been creditably redeemed ; but promises in favor of a second reading had then hardly any existence. In the interval since 1859, vacancies in the-Representation have frequently occurred, and much commendable diligence has been shown to press our views and wishes upon the candidates who have come forward. The instances have, however, been few in which an organized and concentrated manifestation of strength has backed these efforts, On the 10th of March, Mr. Lawson brought " The Intoxi- 34 PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. eating Liquors Bill," embodying our principle into the House of Commons, and it was read a first time. Leave to bring it in was granted, by 72 votes against 38. It is probable that this division excited in the breasts of some of our friends, not well acquainted with the usages of Parliament, an exag- gerated estimate of the good-will of the House towards the measure. All that was signified by this vote was a courteous inclination to have the Bill printed and discussed — this, and nothing more. We therefore could not build any hopes upon the defeat of a sudden and ungraceful opposition on that occa- sion. The number who would support the Bill at the next and critical stage, when its principle would be brought under review, was still uncertain. We did our duty. We called upon you to petition the House, and to supplement petitions, by electoral memorials and private communications to your respective members. This counsel was widely accepted, and too much approval cannot be expressed of the activity and enthusiasm which, in many places, you exhibited. The effect produced upon members of Parliament could not, however, he foreseen. We knew that we had to contend with much ignor- ance, both of our principles and of the hold they possessed upon public sympathy ; and we were confident that the inte- rests of some, and the fears of many, would prevent their co-operation with Mr. Lawson. It was possible, but not pro- bable, that from twenty to thirty members would follow Mr. Lawson into the lobby. The event has exceeded this calculation, and we can sin- cerely avow our gratification that as many as 37 members, including tellers—some of them representing influential con- stituencies— voted in favor of the Bill. If to these we add the three who paired in favor, we have no fewer than forty members who have recorded their approval of the vital prin- ciple of the measure — the right of the people when so dis- posed, to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors within their PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. 35 districts. That such success should have attended this first parliamentary effort, is remarkable, and is a proper cause of profound thankfulness to Almighty God. The fact ought not to escape notice that 324 members did not vote at all. Nearly half the House of Commons remained neutral, thus indicating an unwillingness to commit themselves against the Bill. Taking those who neither voted nor paired adversely, we have out of the G5G members, 359 who are not committed against the Bill. The debate has widely diffused more cor- rect information of our principles and views to the country; and has imparted a prodigious impetus to the agitation, regarded as such. It has shown the argumentative weakness of the opposition. It has registered the admission of the popularity of the measure. It has extorted the confession that the present system is bad, and that something must be done. It has even originated from Mr. Bright a proposal kindred to itself in principle. From the whole of these circumstances wre gather clear and strong encouragement. The first blow has been struck in Parliament, and it must be repeated. We are bound to sup- port Mr. Lawson, who has honorably and ably done his part, and to see that the flag once raised is carried higher and higher. This we can only effect by a closer union among ourselves, by greater liberality in behalf of the movement, and by such an electoral organization in our counties and boroughs, as shall divest the liquor traffic of its existing poli- tical influence, and induce political parties to avoid our oppo- sition, and desire our friendship. We must endeavor to secure the adhesion of the members before they take their seats in the next Parliament. A General Election cannot be long delayed. To prepare for it is your immediate, your most urgent and imperative business. We, the Executive, and our agents throughout the country, will render all possible advice and assistance. Let us hear from you at the earliest opportu- 36 PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. nity, for on us in concert will devolve the labors and honors of the work to be done among the electors and at the hust- ings. It is now, in the pause that follows the first trial of our strength, that we hear afresh the voice of patriotism and hu- manity, demanding in the words of the Declaration of the General Council — "That rising above class, sectarian, or party considerations, all good citizens should combine to pro- cure an enactment, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, as affording most efficient aid in removing the appalling evil of intemperance." Resolutions of a Conference of Alliance Friends in London. Immediately after the division on Mr. Lawson's " Intoxi- cating Liquors Bill," on Wednesday afternoon, June 8th, a large number of the leading and active friends of the Alliance, who had been in attendance in the lobby of the House, and aiding in the deputation to Lord Palmerston, met at the Alli- ance offices, 335 Strand, to confer upon the result of the dis- cussion that had taken place, and the future operations of the supporters of the movement. Mr. Pope presided, and very ably stated the position of the question, and the bearings of the division that had just taken place. Many very excel- lent practical suggestions were made by the various speakers, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : Moved by Charles Jupe, Esq., seconded by Thomas Clegg, Esq.: — "That the friends of the Alliance who are present at this Conference, from various parts of the country, feel very much encouraged with the result of the first division in the House of Commons on the principle of the Permissive Prohibitory Liquor Bill, introduced by Messrs. Lawson and Bazley; and they rejoice that the agitation in its behalf has PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. 37 at length been recognized by Parliament as involving a ques- tion for its earnest consideration. The Conference regard the circumstances of so large a number of members being in the House at the division, as in itself a recognition of the im- portance of the question; and they rejoice that so many mem- bers at the very first introduction of the measure were pre- pared to support its principle by their votes. They earnestly recommend all friends of the movement to increase their efforts in enlightening public opinion, and informing members of the Legislature of the real nature of the Permissive Bill." Moved by Edward Whitwell, Esq., Kendal, seconded by Rev. Canon Jenkinsj M. A. : —" That the most cordial thanks of the friends of the movement are due and are hereby tendered to Wilfrid Lawson, Esq., M. P., for the able manner in which he has introduced the Permissive Bill into the House of Commons.'" Moved by Thomas Richardson, Esq., Bagshott, seconded by J. R. Taylor, Esq., London : — " That the best thanks of the Conference be presented to Mr. Bazley and those members of Parliament who supported Mr. Lawson by their speeches and votes on the second reading of the Intoxicating Liquors Bill." --------------------------------------****------------------------------------------■ Address to Members of Parliament. On the morning of the debate in the House of Commons on Mr. Lawson's bill, a copy of the following document was delivered at the residence of each member: "Intoxicating Liquors Bill," Second Reading, Wednesday, June Sth, 1864. " Honorable gentlemen are respectfully requested to sup- port the second reading of the Intoxicating Liquors Bill. " 1. The numerous acts regulating the sale of drink re- cognize that the traffic needs treatment of an exceptional 38 PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. character. In fact, all persons are prohibited from selling intoxicating liquors, excepting those who are permitted by license. " 2. Licenses are now granted on the production of certifi- cates from the magistrates, who are constituted the judges, not only of the character of the applicants, but of the wants of the neighborhood. "3. Whilst this serious responsibility rests upon the gen- tlemen holding the commission of the peace, they are without any means of ascertaining the wishes of the community amongst whom the licensed houses are established. "4. The Intoxicating Liquors Bill provides the machinery by which the public, upon the widest suffrage in existence, may indicate, by their votes, whether they desire the sale of intoxicating liquors in their midst. " 5. It provides that when a large majority—two to one — wish to be without the sale amongst them, then, and only then, shall their veto become operative. "6. The bill does not propose to close public houses as places of public entertainment, but simply to stop the sale of intoxicating drinks when the people desire the privilege of sale to be withdrawn. "7. Public houses, without the sale of those dangerous articles, will become more available for all classes. They will be victualling houses rather than drinking houses. " 8. The principle of the bill has been acted upon by many landowners, and the inhabitants of the district affected by this policy express the greatest satisfaction with the arrange- ment and its results. What is done by landed proprietors, with such beneficial effects, cannot be objectionable when ac- complished by the people themselves. " 9. The bill is not coercive in any sense not applicable to all legislation, and is not a measure capable of abuse by any party or class. It enables drinkers and drinksellers to vote equally with other sections of the community. Under these circumstances, to pass the Intoxicating Liquors Bill would clearly be an extension of liberty to the people to protect themselves from the evils and taxation invariably produced or augmented by the liquor shops of a district. PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. 39 " 10. ^ All classes would ultimately be benefited by the bill, and as it has the support of large numbers of the working classes, it is hoped that honorable members will be in their places to support the second reading on Wednesday, June 8th, at 12 o'clock." United Kingdom Alliance, Offices—41 John Dalton Street, Manchester: and 335 Strand, London. June 1th, 1864. To the Right Hon. Lord Palmerston, Her Majesty's first Minister of State. The Humble Memorial of the Executive of the United King- dom Alliance, for the Total Legislative Suppression of the Liquor Traffic, Respectfully Sheweth — That your Memorialists, from a wide observation of the condition and sentiments of the people of the United King- dom, and especially of the middle and working classes, are convinced that there is a strong opinion and a growing feeling against the present system of Licensing places for the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors. That the efforts and teachings of Temperance and Social Reformers have resulted in a prevalent and deep conviction, that strong drink is an exceptional article of commerce, and that it is neither right nor politic for the State to sanction and uphold a system that produces poverty, vice, crime, insanity, and premature death. That your Memorialists have observed that many leading Landowners, of late years, have recognized the pernicious a^d demoralizing character of places Licensed for the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors; and have exercised their influence to remove these pestilent places from their estates. And in no instance have the people of the district, from whence the 40 PROHIBITION IN GREAT BRITAIN. liquor traffic has been thus excluded, expressed any griev- ances or complaints; but on the contrary, in all cases, your Memorialists believe that public sentiment has ratified and rejoiced in the beneficial change. That your Memorialists have for a series of years tested the opinion of the masses of the people on this question of the Liquor Traffic, by holding public meetings, gathering pe- titions, and by a systematic house to house visitation and canvass. The result of these inquiries has been such as to fully convince your Memorialists that the present public house system, if submitted to the action of an effective popu- lar control, would soon be swept away, as a public nuisance and social curse. That, as these drinking houses are ostensibly Licensed for the convenience and advantage of the public, your Memorial- ists conceive that it is only just and right that the people of any district should have the power to declare by vote, that they either do or do not desire to have these places in their midst. That your Memorialists therefore respectfully and most earnestly implore your Lordship and the Government to sanc- tion and aid the effort now being made to pass the " Intoxi- cating Liquors Bill," which would enable the owners and occupiers of property, being Ratepayers, to veto the issue of Licenses for the sale of Intoxicating Liquors, whenever and wherever a majority of two-thirds shall so determine. And your Memorialists will ever pray. Signed on behalf of the Executive Council, WALTER C. TREVELYAN, Bart., President. WILLIAM HARVEY, J. P., Chairman. SAMUEL POPE, Barrister-at-Law, Hon. Sec. THOMAS H. BARKER, Secretary. Manchester, June Mh, 1864. No. 5. »♦------ THE AMERICAN TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT, PREPARED BY REQUEST OF THE GREAT TEMPERANCE ALLIANCE OF GREAT BRITAIN, AND READ AT THE International Temperance and Prohibition Convention, HANOVER SQUARE ROOMS, LONDON, ON SEPTEMBER 3d, 1862. BY EDWARD C.DEL A VAN, ALBANY, N. Y. CORRESPONDENCE. FROM E. C. DELAVAN, ESQ., UNITED STATES. South Ballston, Saratoga County, ) New York, U. S. A., Aug. 12th, 1862. } Sir—I have been notified by my friend, T. H. Barker, Esq., Secretary of the " Grand Alliance," that the committee of arrangements for the International Temperance and Prohibi- tion Convention, to be held in London on the 2d, 3d, and 4th of September, has done me the honor of naming me the first Vice-President of the Convention, an honor which I greatly appreciate. I was a delegate to the World's Convention, held at Lon- don in 1838. On my recent visit to England, I was much delighted and greatly encouraged with the marked advance the cause of Temperance had made during this long interval. The fact that you, sir, act as President of the Alliance, as well as the presiding officer of the Convention, with the Earl 42 AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. of Harrington and Lord Brougham as Vice-Presidents, makes, in my opinion, an era in the great Temperance cause. I am older than I was in 1838, and yet, if it is possible and compatible with other duties, I shall endeavor so to manage my affairs as to sail in the Africa, the 20th instant, from Boston, with the expectation of reaching London in time to take the highly honorable place assigned me on the platform. Should I be prevented, the disappointment to me would be very great. Permit me, sir, to express the opinion, that the Permissive Bill appears to me simple in its structure and just in its aim; and I have no doubt it is destined in due time to prevail, and cause a rich flow of blessings to the British nation. The press in this country has been the great instrument to enlighten the public mind, and bring that mind up, step by step, to the full blaze of the truth with regard to the nature and effects of alcohol. In 1837 I hardly knew of a dozen individuals who had even thought of Prohibition. Now, I believe there are millions of true converts to the principle, who only wait the ending of the present unholy, causeless rebellion, to renew their labors until the law is fully enacted in every State in the Union. Of a single document on the immorality of the traffic two millions two hundred thousand were printed—a copy for every family in the nation that by any possibility could be reached. Copies of important Temperance papers have often been furnished for every family in the State. It appears to me the Permissive Bill should follow, not precede the gene- ral enlightenment of the masses, as to its value and justice. I look upon the Alliance, and all kindred organizations, in their influence, as mutual insurance associations to preserve health, life, and property; to lessen pauperism, crime and taxation; and to promote piety, virtue, and add to national health and prosperity. If these benevolent institutions in Great Britain can, by their efforts, diminish the consumption of alcoholic poison as a beverage a single penny a day to each of 35,000,000 of the inhabitants of the British Isles, it would amount (if my cal- culation is correct) to £53,229,160 sterling a year. As the pulpit, press, and the lecturer are the principal instruments of enlightenment, I trust the public bounty will flow into the AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. 43 treasury of the Alliance in proportion to the magnitude of the labor thrown upon it. I am, sir, yours very truly, Sir W. C. Trevelyan. E. C. Delavan. South Ballston, New York, United States, ) August 16th, 1862. \ My Dear Friend—I have this moment received your kind note of the 29th ult. I regret most deeply and painfully the necessity of informing you that my health will not allow me at this time to cross the Atlantic. I have never recovered from the severe accident which befel me last year. I have delayed writing till the last moment, hoping I might (as I intimated to your worthy President) take the steamer of the 20th inst. But such is my state of health that my family object, and I dare not go. You very much overrate the importance of my presence at the Convention. To me the loss will be great; and it is also a disappointment which I feel very deeply. I spent seven years of my life in England, and have experienced so much kindness from English friends that I cannot cast them from my heart because some of them, through the agency of a depraved press, have been misled as to the cause of the great rebellion. You may rely upon it, my friend, this rebellion has been long hatching—about as long as the Temerance Reformation has had being. The war originated in the South to break up the Union, with the hope of fastening slavery on this Continent. The war was commenced in the South. The South fired the first gun. The North is fighting for its existence as a nation, for the Union, and for the final downfall of slavery, which is as important to the South as to the North. The North will continue to fight for these objects while a man or a dollar is left. To be consistent, England must sympathize with us. We want no help ; we have the means and power of doing up this work. We may have reverses, but they will only stimu- late to greater effort. The North have a pride in labor. It is according to God's law that man should eat bread " by the sweat of his brow." The South would set aside this law, and gain their bread by the sweat of other men's brows, and under the lash too often. Will God permit this ? I think not. It appears to me that if ever there was a time, now is that 44 AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. time, when statesmen should study the Temperance cause in view of its political economy. Your laboring classes are on the verge of starvation for the want of bread, consequent upon the want of cotton. Are not the brewers and distillers, by destroying the grain of the earth, increasing the evil tenfold ? The Temperance Reformation has not yet done its perfect work in this country by any means ; it has still to encounter and subdue many opposing forces. Much, however, has been done of permanent value. When the reform was inaugurated in 1x26, the population was about half that it now is. The darkness was all but universal as to the true character of alco- hol. Then, not one farm in a hundred Avas cultivated without the poison, " alcohol," in the hay and harvest field. Then, a great proportion of the farms were mortgaged to the rum seller. Now, not one in a hundred use the poison on their farms, and mortgages for liquor bills are now rare. The farmers of the nation are the strength of it, and can be relied on in any neces- sity involving right principles. But I must not take up your time. I know full well by experience, how much labor and anxiety it must cost to prepare for such a Convention as is to meet in London on the 2d, 3d and 4th of September. Do present my kindest regards to all your associates, and believe me as ever, Your friend, J. H. Barker, Esq., Sec'y Edward C. Delavan. United Kingdom Alliance, ■To procure the total immediate Legislative suppres- sion of the traffic in Intoxicating Liquors, Manchester, England. AMERICAN TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. ----------««^»>*---------- About a third of a century since a small Band of Temper- ance men in the United States of America ventured to put forth their belief that distilled spirit was always injurious as a beverage. This opinion was at first assailed as ridiculous and fanatical, an outrage on public opinion and common sense. But this small band, believing their position to be true, employed the press and other instrumentalities to bring home to every fireside in the nation, which could possibly be reached, those facts and arguments by which they had themselves been convinced. Truth is mighty, and it did prevail. These efforts were eminently blessed, and after a few years of intense labor the results were truly astonishing. Four hundred thousand persons in the State of New York, gave in their adhesion to the principle, and signed the pledge of Abstinence from the use of ardent spirits. Over ten thousand dealers abandoned the traffic, in obedience to public opinion, or from the bidding of an enlightened conscience. Although the truth was thus blessed, in regard to distilled liquors, yet only a part of the truth had been proclaimed. Science came in, and settled the fact, that alcohol in ferment- ed drinks was exactly the same poisonous fluid as in distilled liquors. Before the full establishment of this fact, spirits became so universally condemned, and the trade so reduced, that the dealers resorted to skilful adulterations, by which they adroit- 46 AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. ly converted a great deal of their stock of ardent spirits into a drink bearing the name of wine, and, under this disguise, de- coyed tens of thousands into drinking ardent spirits, who sup- posed they were living up to their pledge ! This art has now become a business, so established that a pure article of liquor, even when intoxicating, is almost out of the question, whether for medicinal or sacramental purposes. When the truth became known that it was alcohol, no mat- ter under what name disguised, which was the "mocker," ruining the world, the friends of true Temperance had but two alternatives; either to give up the reform altogether, or fight the battle against alcohol in fermented as well as distilled liquor. They had the moral courage given them, in the face of the general opinion of the civilized, but more especially of the Christian world to fight this battle. The opposition was all but universal; the thousands of societies formed under the ardent spirit pledge fell away, and the whole labour had to be gone over again to establish the Total Abstinence doctrine. The political and generally the religious press uttered the cry of denunciation against this step in advance, condemning it as opposed to the teachings of the Saviour. " Did he not," said they, " make intoxicating wine at the marriage of Cana ? Did not He dispense it at the institution of the Last Supper?" It was thought to be sufficient answer to these inquiries that the Bible had denounced intoxicating wine as "a mocker," not much or little, but wine itself; had characterized intoxi- cating wine as " biting like a serpent, and stinging like an adder." How could the Saviour, without stultifying this teaching, make and dispense intoxicating wine ? He who came into the world to save, not to destroy it ! That our Saviour made wine, out of water, is true, but must it follow that He made the kind which is " a mocker." The doctrine that the Bible sanctions the use of intoxicating liquors, as a beverage, has been the bane of the Church. It AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. 47 'has already caused the downfall of millions within its pale, and is still leading on millions more to the same impending judgment. The delusive doctrine that the moderate use is safe, and that it is excess only that is to be avoided, has occasioned most of the drunkenness of the world ; and, unless this delusion is expelled, intemperance will continue to the end of time. The use of alcohol as a beverage in health, is at all times, and in all cases, a violation of the laws of life, which are the laws of God ; and so long as such use is sanctioned by the Church, drunkenness will, however unwittingly, be perpetuated by the Church. Temperance organizations have furnished the world with facts and arguments, to show that there can be no cure for the evil, save total abstinence. The early labourers in the States are passing away. The Rev. Justin Edwards, D. D., Governor Briggs, Dr. Warren, Honorable Theodore Frelinghuysen, and others of the like character, who wTere faithful to the last, have died ; the Revs. Drs. Beecher, Nott, and Wayland ; Chief Jus- tice Savage, John Tappan, Horace Greeley, Dr. Hewitt, Dr. Mussey, Chancellor Walworth, Hon. G. Smith, Rev. Dr. Marsh, Professor Youmans, General J. H. Cocke, Bishop Potter, Pro- fessor C. A. Lee, and a host of others, who assisted to raise the Temperance standard, yet live, and have never for a mo- ment deserted their colours. As with you, so with us, the most devoted friends of the reform have at times honestly dif- fered as to the best mode of urging it forward ; but as a rule, by friendly intercourse and public discussion, great oneness of sentiment and action has been attained. Total Abstinence men all over this nation are so numerous, and have practiced the abstinence they have preached so long, that they have become venerable landmarks, illustrating in their persons the inestimable value of the principle. These veterans cannot here- after labour as in times past; but it is most refreshing and 48 AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. heart-cheering to them to know that converts to their princi- ples are to be found by millions, including men and women of all ranks in Church and State. Our great leader in Prohibi- tion, General Neal Dow, now engaged in fighting the battles of his country, will, we hope, when peace is restored, again lead on the prohibitory host to victory. The latest steps adopted by our rulers are encouraging. The English public are acquainted with the well-bruited fact that spirit rations, with quinine, were issued to the army on the Potomac to ward off fever. A week's trial was sufficient evi- dence of its futility for good and its power for evil, and the Commander-in-Chief at once expelled this most dangerous foe. At the same time Congress ordered alcohol to be ejected from the navy, where it has nestled for fifty years ; and now both army and navy stand out before the world, in all their regula- tions, examples of Temperance principles. May England soon follow in the same safe and sanitary path ! Prohibition has not been a failure in this country. A very great majority of the people, outside the corrupting influence of large towns and cities, are decidedly in favor of it, and in time will have it. After the war ends and things settle down, the movement will again revive, and what you are now doing will be valuable aid to us, though the struggle will be long and arduous. We, indeed, have special difficulties, if special advantages. Our political demagogues, who appear willing to sacrifice the best interests of their country to carry out party ends, look to the grog-shop and the miserable drunkard, as their most valuable supporters. These influences will be arraigned against universal Prohibition, and it will require many Dows and Careys to conquer. That they will conquer, I as fully believe as that there is a God in Heaven. I repeat, Prohibition has been no failure in America, all things considered. It has hardly had a fair trial generally; but where it has, the beneficial results in such localities have AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. 49 quite exceeded the expectations of its friends. With us, as with you, the opponents hg.ve been most ingenious in their arguments to prejudice the masses against the measure. One standing plea has been, that it is "a tyrannical attempt to take away the liberties of the people." "Is it right," they ask, "that any citizen should be prohibited from selling, or be embarrassed in the means of procuring, what he is accus- tomed to use without apparent injury to himself or the pub- lic, because others abuse it to their own detriment ?" In re- plying, it is necessary first of all to inquire what are the invariable and inevitable social effects of the liquor-traffic ? for it is on these grounds, if at all, that the State has a right to interfere. Now, it is safe to assert, that whenever human beings have been exposed to the temptation of intoxicating drinks, many have partaken of them habitually, and a consi- derable number have become drunkards. So long as this ensnaring temptation is publicly offered, it is certain that many will drink, and numbers will become abandoned drunk- ards. These propositions are confirmed by all experience, from the days of the flood until this very hour. It is equally undeniable that these drunkards are withdrawn from every duty they owe to society, and finally hurried down, through Bufferings none but themselves can conceive, to dishonored and untimely graves ; that in the meantime some of them become maniacs; that some, under the moral blindness and frenzy of intoxication, are guilty of murders and other crimes; that many of them inflict upon their helpless wives and children miseries, compared with which speedy death were a blessing; and that the immediate costs and terrible consequences of these misdeeds fall on citizens in no degree accountable for them. Can a law, designed to relieve these citizens from such mischiefs, by directly and absolutely interdicting their known cause, really be tyrannical and unjust ? or is it not usual and 5 50 AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. proper legislation ? Light may be thrown on the question by a simple definition of municipal law and of liberty :— " Civil, or municipal law, is a rule of conduct prescribed to all the citizens by the supreme power in the State, in con- formity to the constitution, on a matter of common interest. It is the solemn declaration of the legislative power, by which it commands, under certain penalties or certain rewards, what each citizen should do, not do, or suffer, for the common good of the State." Liberty is defined as " The power of doing whatever is not injurious to others; the exercise of our natural rights, bounded only by the rights which assure to others the enjoy- ment of their rights. Civil liberty is the power to do what- ever is permitted by the laws of the land. It is no other than natural liberty so far restrained by human laws and no further, as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public." Now, in view of the admitted wrongs to individuals, and burdens and taxes upon the public, through the sale of intox icating drinks, compare a law simply prohibiting that sale with the above, or the narrowest definitions, of municipal law, and we shall find that the law proposed comes strictly within its terms ; or compare this law with the above, or the broadest definition of human liberty, and we shall find that it is not infringed a hair's breadth by the Maine Law. If this be so ; if the law merely prescribes what " each citizen should do, not do, or suffer, for the common good of the State " —if, in effect, it simply interdicts some from doing what is " injurious to others," then wc may safely assume that it is neither tyran- nical nor improper, but within the ordinary sphere of legislation. A license law, in fact, involves the entire right in question, for such a law primarily prohibits all, and then excepts those licensed ; and if it had not the right to prohibit them also, the license would be an idle ceremony. In this view of the AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. 51 case, the question of right has been practically settled for ages. But to some minds the application of the principle of Pro- hibition, in a parallel case, may be more convincing. Thirty years since the several cities of New York State were almost as plentifully studded with shops for the sale of lottery tickets, as with those for vending intoxicating drinks — both licensed by the State, under the notion of regulating the business. The purchaser of lottery tickets could take the same grounds as the purchaser of intoxicating drinks; he paid for what he purchased Avith his own money; he had too much prudence to do himself any harm ; he Avas willing and able to dedicate all he expended for tickets to the benign objects of the lottery, thereby purchasing the possibility of drawing a prize. The vendor of tickets could, in like manner, insist on the pecuni- ary losses to which he would be exposed, by the destruction of a business, to Avhich he had devoted himself under the sanction of law, and on Avhich his family depended for sup- port ; that the business ought not to be suppressed, because a few only of those who purchased tickets were ruined by its allurements — still less should it be suppressed Avithout ample compensation. In principle, this lottery and the liquor trade were the same, but in two or three particulars there was a difference. Lotteries were for the promotion of science and literature, an object undeniably useful, while the liquor traffic is of worse than doubtful utility. The allurements of the lottery were consid- erable, but those of the inebriating cup are many times greater ; while the mischief and ruin which attended the former, Avas as a drop to the ocean in comparison with the latter. On the ground of facts, therefore, the liquor business should have been forbidden, and the lotteries, if either, ought to have been cher- ished and perpetuated by State licenses. On the contrary, hoAvever, the Legislature of 1827 prohibited, under severe 52 AMERICAN TEMPERANCE IN ENGLAND. penalties of fine and imprisonment, the opening of any lottery scheme, or the sale of any lottery tickets, authorized or unau- thorized ; and the people emphatically sanctioned the enact- ment by vigorously enforcing it, and by causing to be inserted in the constitution, approved by their own votes, a clause for- bidding any future Legislature to repeal it. An attentive examination of our numerous prohibitory and penal laws, will show that the supreme selfishness which seeks the gratification of its own appetites, or the acquisition of gain, by means dangerous to others, is as promptly and sternly rebuked by municipal law as by Christian morality. It is the impunity in public and private mischief, hitherto enjoyed by the liquor traffic, and not the law demanded for its suppression, which really constitutes a marked and mischievous exception to the ordinary course of protective legislation. The philanthropists of England and America are engaged in a mighty work, in spreading the Gospel throughout the world. They send their bishops and missionaries everywhere; but, as a general rule, along with the Bible they introduce intoxicating liquor, and even at the very table of the Lord the convert is expected to partake of the cup of intoxication. I pray that this great error may ere long be corrected in the churches, and when corrected by them, the world at large will follow, and one of the greatest hindrances to conversion will be removed. No. 6. LETTER TO GENERAL JOHN H. COCKE OF VIRGINIA, (Late President of the American Temperance Union,) ON THE COMMUNION QUESTION. FROM EDWARD C. DELAVAN. ----------♦♦--------- SouTn Ballston, October 1, 1856. To General John II. Cocke, Late President Am. Temperance Union, 7 Island Post Office, Virginia. Mr Dear Sir:—While on your recent visit to me, you remarked that it Avas due to the cause of Temperance, to myself, as well as my family, that I should give to the public a brief history of the rise of the Communion question, and my true position Avith regard to it. That while jrou fully understood the Avhole matter, yet you had not unfrequently, even in Virginia and elseAvhere, to defend me from unfounded charges Avith regard to this important question. Your recent letter, alluding to the same subject, has induced me to comply with your request, which I now do as briefly as possible, that the reproach and charge of my " daring attempt to banish from the com- munion table the element the Son of God consecrated," may be removed. In the early 3^ears of the Temperance Reform in the State of New York, tiie agitation of the Communion question was thought by many as most unfortunate, and calculated to retard the movement, if not thrciten the overthrow of the Temperance cause entirely. At this time, I cannot but think, that on a review of the whole ques- tion, it will be looked upon in a truer light and with a more impartial eye. And Avhen it is considered that whatever explanation I have to make must be made soon, if made at all, I shall, I trust, be pardoned for making that explanation now. I5esides, the opposition met with from dealers and drinkers, which Avas to be expected, great embarrassment was experienced in conse- quence of the position assumed even by educated men, that alcohol was 54 LETTER TO GENL. COCKE OP VA. the result of distillation; and that fermented liquors were, therefore, not injurious but healthful as a common beverage. So little under- stood was the nature of the poison we arrayed ourselves against, as connected with fermentation, that our noble, intelligent and mutual friend, the Hon. Gerrit Smith, at the first meeting of the New York State Temperance Society, recommended the cultivation of the vine and the manufacture of wine. He said " it would be a useful Tem- perance measure to substitute wir.e for ardent spirits." Now this same noble and disinterested supporter of the cause, feels that he has not only the same moral but the same legal right to enter the tenement where intoxicating liquors are sold as a beverage, whether the product of the wine vat or the still, and with his OAvn hand break the bottles, and stave in the head of the casks, and destroy the contents thereof as a public nuisance, as he would have to shoot a mad dog in chase of his child or neighbor. Nor was it till discussions were held, and repeated experiments made by men of science, in different countries, that the public mind was disabused of error, and the friends of Temperance vindicated for including intoxicating drinks of all kinds, whether dis- tilled or fermented, among the articles to be avoided as alwaj-s injuri- ous as beverages. These changes in our own views from time to time, should ever remind us to judge with charity those Avho do not imme- diately change Avith us. The Communion question, as it was called, the discussion of which greatly agitated the public mind, and threatened for a season to destroy the harmony, if not the very existence of the Temperance organization, was not introduced by the organization, or any branch of it, but Avas forced on the State Society by the opposers of entire abstinence, on the plea that while intoxicating wine was used, and commanded to be used at the Lord's table, we had no right to condemn its use in mod- eration at other tables. The discussion of this question Avas constantly urged by opposers of total abstinence, and for a long time avoided by the Society, till at length it Avas boldly asserted, and publicly pro- claimed in the newspapers, that I icas myself " opposed to wine at the Lord's table." About this period, and before the report had been extensive^ circu- lated, a Temperance convention Avas held at Buffalo, in 1835, to decide whether the Society should adopt the pledge of total abstinence from all that can intoxicate. I took with me to that convention a resolution adopted by the Executive Committee of the State Society, of which I was chairman, disavowing all intention to interfere with "this question in relation to the use of wine at the communion. But the Business Committee of the convention thought it unwise to bring such a resolu- tion forward to arrest the progress of an unfounded rumor, put in circulation in a single locality. When I returned to Albany from the convention, Avhich decided by only a single negative that it was the duty of the State Society to advocate total abstinence from all that can intoxicate, I found the imputation of my opposition to the use of wine on the communion question. 55 at the communion had been so extended, and so generally believed, that Temperance men and Anti-Temperance men seemed to be com- bined against me; and the press, both political and religious, uttered only the language of denunciation. And although I published a dis- claimer in the Evening Journal* immediately (October, 1835), yet falsehood traveled so last, that truth has even yet hardly overtaken it. I saw there was no avoiding the discussion—that the real question at issue must be distinctly stated, and the charge implied, fully and fairly met. And although dragged before the public without provoca- tion, I did meet it; and to show how unfounded the report was which Avas put in circulation, and the disadvantage under which it placed me before the public, I will give a letter from an individual Avho was the innocent cause of giving rise to a charge against me, Avhich at the time bore on me Avith such injurious effect, and such a crushing weight. Had this letter, Avhich follows, been published at the time, and the origin of the unfounded accusations been immediately made known, I should at once have been placed on the vantage ground before the public, but it was not so made known; on the i ontrary, nearly two years elapsed before its publication, which took place 10th June, 18-J7, in the Xow York American, then edited by Charles King, the present honored President of Columbia College, who Avhile editor of that exemplary political paper, always gave me an impartial hearing; and I wish here, after a lapse of twenty and more years, to render him my public thanks for his kindness. Th<3 letter is as follows, and probably did not meet the eye of one in ten thousand who had been made to believe that I was little short of an Intidel, " being opposed to WINE AT THE LORD'S TABLE." Farmington, Ct., May 17, 1837. Dear Sir :—It has recently come to my knowledge, that a distinguished clergyman, whilst delivering a sermon to a large congregation in the city of New York, in which he spoke of the ultrai.-m of the times, expressed him- self in substance as follows, viz: "That so extravagant and reckless were some of the advocates of the Temperance cause, that they had stolen into the church of God, anddesecrated the wine provided for the holy communion." Not long since, a gentleman visiting in the family of a highly respected citizen, residing in the western part of the State of New York, was told that " Mr. Delavan had secretly entered the Second Presbyterian Church, in Al- bany, and mixed water with the wine, intended for the communion.'''' Other misrepresentations of the same character, in which Mr. Delavan's and my *DISCLAIMER OF THE NEW YORK STATE TEMPERAICCE SOCIETY. The Executive Committee of the New York State Temperance Society, being aware that a report has been industriously circulated, that it was their design to dis- pense with the use of wine at the Lord's Supper, deem it lo be their duly to disclaim utterly any such intention. They believe llial the " Fruit of the Vine " is one of the essential elements of that sacred ordinance. The Committee have never, for a moment, entertained a wish or thought that the "Fruit of the Vine," as used by our Lord, should be withdrawn from the sacramental table. By order of the Executive Committee, E. C. DELAVAN, Chairman. Albany, Oct. 1,1835. 56 LETTER TO GENL. COCKE OF VA. name were distinctly mentioned, have alio come to my knowledge, which it is unnecessary to repeat. So long as the censure connected with the transac- tion that gave rise to these misrepresentations was confined to myself, and was limited in extent, I did not deem it of consequence enough to require any particular notice. But since the misrepresentation is circulated and endorsed in various sections of the country, by individuals whose standing and influence will give it currency, to the injury of the Temperance cause, and to the detriment of a friend, who had nothing to do with the transaction in question, I feel called upon to make a simple statement of the facts. About two years since, being then a resident of Albany, and a member of the Second Presbyterian (Dr. Sprague's) Church in that city, two elders of that church called at my house, at a late hour of a Saturday evening, pre- vious to a communion, and stated, that they had just left a meeting of the session of the church, and that Dr. Sprague had stated to the session, that he had understood that I was in possession of some pure wine, and as they bad difficulty in procuring such as was pure, suggested that a committee bo appointed to ask if I would furnish enough for the use of the table the next day. I replied to the elders, that I had M.ideria wine, that I had no doubt came directly from that island; but notwithstanding this, I did not consider it pure, as all Madcria wines had a considerable admixture of brandy; that Dr. Beck had analyzed some of the same kind, and found it contained alcohol equal to 42 per cent, of brandy. I did not, therefore, consider it proper to be used in the communion, inasmuch as the wines of Palestine, and pure wines generally, did not contain more alcohol than was equal to about lo or 20 per cent, of brandy; and moreover, there was good reason to suppose that even those wines were in ancient times reduced by adding two or three parts of water, when drunk by respectable people and when used in the com- munion.* I added that I was unwilling to furnish such wine as mine to be used in the communion; but if they chose to take it with such an addition of water as would reduce it to about the strength of the wines of Palestine, they were welcome to as much as they might want. They made no objection to my proposition, informed me how much they should want, and the next morning the sexton of the church was sent to my house, and I furnished the quantity desired, reduced in the manner proposed. The whole transaction was unsought on my part, and unexpected to me, nor did I consult or advise with any one on the subject. I was present at the communion, and left town the following morning, not dreaming that any dissatisfaction existed. On *Il is yet an open question whether water was used for diluting wine for the com- munion in llie early history of llie church, on account of its containing alcohol, or on account of the thick ropy slate of the uniiitoxicaliug wine as il was usually pre- served, and as abundantly proved by ancient wri'crs. In one case water would only dilute an intoxicating drink—•the mocker," in the other lo dilute a pure, lieallliful Dud nutritious wine. In a note attached to the 11th verse of the xl chapter of Gen- esis, in Baxter's Comprehensive Bible, will be found the following account of wine making and wine drinking in the primitive aijes of the world: -'FROM THIS WE l'IND'THAT WINK ANCIENTLY AVAS THE MERE EXPRESSED JUICE OF THE HRAPE, WITHOUT FERMENTATION THE SAKA OR CUP BEARER TOOK THE BUNCH, PRESSED THE JUICE INTO THE CUP AND INSTANTLY DELIVERED IT TO IIIS MASTER." ••Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it." Isaiah Ixv, 3. Pliny, who lived about the lime of our Saviour, says good wine was that which was destitute of spirit. Book 4, chap. 12 Plutarch calls that the best wine which is harmless; that the most useful which has the least strength; and that the most wholesome in whicli was nothing added to the juice of the grape. Evidence of the ubove character, as to the existence and healthfulness of unintoxicating wine, could be greatly multiplied. ON THE COMMUNION QUESTION. 57 my return in a few weeks, I found that the church had been much excited on the subject, and that there was a general impression that I had practiced a deception, by offering to furnish some pure wine for the communion, and instead of pure wine, had furnished weak wine and water. I took no further notice of the matter than to send a written statement to the pastor, similar to what I have now written, nor should I now do so, but for the reasons already stated. I am yours very sincerely, JOHN T. NORTON. To give you some faint idea of the character and spirit of the con- troversy, especially on one side of it, and the public feeling at the time by the false charge brought against me, I quote, as specimens, and merely specimens, Avhich might be greatly extended, of epithets applied tome by a single opponent, and a Reverend Doctor of Divinity, in his communications in favor of the Avine that intoxicates for the Lord's Supper, in place of wine the fruit of the vine, advocated by me, in a state which Avould not intoxicate:— " Presumptuous and impious statements—foul aspersions—assault on the most solemn ordinances of our religion—all the wise and holy men of the land are opposed to his views, and contemplate them with indignation and horror—blasphemous presumption—this is a monstrous, daring attempt to banish from the communion table the element the Son of God consecrated— presumptuous attack upon an ordinance,, and through it upon the character of Christ—antidote to the poison—prevarications and perversions of Scrip- ture—flood of error—he has impeached the benevolence, and by consequence the divinity of the Son of God—another such instance of vanity and presump- tion—shocking impiety, aiming, as in fact it does, a blow at the divinity of the Son of God—involves the inspiration of the Scriptures, and equally the wisdom and benevolence, und consequently the divinity of Christ—alarmed at the indignation, &c.—after all the fog in which Mr. D. has endeavored to involve his views—his pretensions to candor are pretensions and nothing more —he has practiced abundantly on the credulity of the public—I have reason to believe that there is more of poetry than truth in this excuse—shocking language—it is a deliberate attempt to deceive—a tissue of falsehoods— absurdities and blasphemies—he has the hardihood to affirm—this amazing perversion of truth—his own gross prevarication—after all his quibbling." And after applying to me these epithets, and after a full re\rieAV of them, and his labors, he remarked:— " /have not penned a sentence, nor a word, which with my present views I should desire to erase." It is only just, however, to remark, that after applying to me the epithets above quoted, and re-indorsing them as above quoted, he very charitably ascribed my vieAVS on the communion question (those views only extending to the kind of wine proper for that sacred ordinance), to an "aberration of intellect." IIow far such epithets should have been applied by a Christian minis- ter to a Christian brother of the same church, under an " aberration of intellect," is a question I will not take upon myself to decide. The same Rev. gentleman compared me to Judas Iscariot. " 1 prefer," said he, " the character of the impetuous Peter who drew his sword to thz insinuating Judas, who betrayed his Master." But 58 LETTER TO GENL. COCKE OF VA. here, let it be remembered, that the rashness of Peter, as well as the treachery of Judas, was rebuked by Jesus Christ; and that when rebuked, Peter, whom this Reverend gentleman wished to imitate, obedient to his Lord's command, "put up his sword ;" and in another case, " went out and wept bitterly." Happy would it be if all Christians, and especially all Christian ministers, who have heretofore offended, or are now offending, by imi- tating the impetuous Peter, were to cancel the offence by imitating his repentance and reformation. As a matter of history alone, do I refer to the spirit in which this controversy Avas conducted. And while in some cases that spirit can- not be defended, yet I can and do fully estimate the motives of those learned divines, who Avrote in opposition to my views. They undoubt- edly felt that in my zeal to promote the cause of Temperance, I was laying sacrilegious hands upon one of the most holy ordinances of our Religion; and as Avatchmen, set to guard Truth, and arrest the spread of Error, they felt impelled, by a sense of duty to the church, to expose what they, in the commencement of the discussion, considered a great fallacy. In 1842, this same report Avas revived, and circulated in the news- papers, in a modified form, to wit: " that I was in favor of water at the Lord's Supper." This (understanding that lAvasto be crushed), I repelled, by requesting letters from leading individuals Avith whom I was most intimate and confidential, and with Avhom I had been in free correspondence on the subject. In response to that request, the follow- ing gentlemen stated, " that in all my correspondence and conversa- tions during this period, they never heard ».c express a desire to sub- stitute anything for wine at the Lord's table; that my only object appeared to be, to ascertain the kind of wine used by the Saviour, and to substitute that at the communion table, in place of the vile intoxica- ting and adulterated coiiipounds known to be in use, and the use oj which at the Lord's table, ivas plead in their own defence by the rum- sellers and the rum andwine drinkers, and the profligaleof all classes." The names of the individuals alluded to are the following:— Rev. Dr. E. Nott, Pres. Union College; Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, Bishop of l'enn. ; Hon. Ira Harris, Supreme Judge, Albany; Gen. John H. Cocke, late President American Temperance Union, Va.; Hon. Gerrit Smith, Peters- boro; Hon. Erastus Corning, Albany; John T. Norton, Farmington, Conn.; Rev. John Marsh, D. D., Secretary American Temperance Union; Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State of New York; Rev. Dr. I.N. AVyckoff, Albany; Hon. A. Tabor, Albany; Israel Smith, Esq., Albany; 0. Scovill, Esq., Albany; Prof. C. R. Lee, M. D., New York; Hon. R. H. AValworth, late Chancellor of the State, Saratoga; Hon. Bradford R. AVood, Albany; Rev. Dr. Justin Edwards, Andover, Mass. You will understand that the above gentlemen arc here cited only as witnesses to a matter of fact; and not that they are from this to be ON THE COMMUNION QUESTION. 59 held committed to the views which make up the body of this commu- nication. And noAV my dear friend, after the excitement of the discussion groAving out of the controversy has passed away, a controversy in which I caused to be circulated near seven millions of documents, I wish to ask of you, in all sincerity, Avhether, if this controvjrsy had not taken place, and the facts established as to the nature and effects of intoxicating drinks, the Temperance host now would with such unanimity and zeal be urging forward the cause of prohibition of the sale of all that can intoxicate as a beverage ? As my sole object was the development of truth, it was my prac- tice in all these controversies on these great questions, to publish and scatter broadcast, and at great cost and labor, the facts Avhich had been ascertained, and the arguments which had been employed on both sides—taking it for granted, that those openly and under their own signatures, opposing my views, did so from an equal desire to arrive at truth Avith myself. Yoa are aware that I have published five numbers of the "Enquirer" principally devoted to this question. I may, if my life is spared, and the cause of Truth demands it, continue the " Enquirer," on my own responsibility, and publish all communications on both sides, which are Avritten in a Christian spirit, Even this communication, you of course understand, is on my 0AVrn personal responsibility, and commits no Temperance Society or Committee with which I may be connected. I do not make these statements for the purpose of renewing the question by Temperance organizations. That question has been already as Avill be perceived, extensively discussed, and it is iioav lor the churches to decide as to the kind of wine proper for the Lord's table Still, as an individual opinion, speaking on my own responsibility, and for myself only, I cannot refrain from saying, that it crosses my sense of propriety, to find in laws inhibiting the sale of intoxicating drink as a beverage, an exception in favor of their sale FOR SACRA- MENTAL PURPOSES. Not that I have ev.r been opposed to the use of wine at the com- munion, but merely to the use of spurious, enforced and intoxicating Avine, a kind of Avine I believe never made, used or sanctioned by our blessed Lord. " The fruit of the vine," is the only term used in the sacred volume connected with the Lord's cupper.* It is now gener- *AVc know that our Lord and his disciples had met to celebrate the feast of the Passover; and we kr.ow that the Jews were scrupulous in using at this ceremony none but unleavened bread and unfermeuted wine. And it is certain that we havo no account that any oilier kind of wine was introduced when our Saviour merged the Passover into the Lord's Supper. Indeed, the only words used lodefine the contents of the '• cup," are " the fruit of the vine." Here is the language of the three evan- delists who record the occasion: _ Matt xxvi 27-9.—And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, say- ina- • Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of 60 LETTER TO GENL. COCKE OF VA. ally admitted, by those who have examined the subject, that the "fruit of the vine," is Avine, Avhether intoxicating or not.* This being the case, I Avould ask, and Avith becoming deference, and in vieAV of the mighty reform in progress, of all professing Christians of every sect, Avhether it would not be becoming in them at once to look deeply and praj'erfullv into the bearings of this question; and if it is found that the presence of the intoxicating cup, as now generally administered at the table of the Lord, is a stumbling block, and that stumbling block can legitimately be removed, by the substitution of the " fruit of the vine" in an unadulterated and unintoxicating state, Avhether it is not their bounden duty to substitute the same as soon as practicable ?f Here is a great, important and vital question, lying, as I think at the very root of the Temperance Reform, which belongs to the church to consider and settle. As a member thereof, I speak as I have a right to speak, and I trust every other member who feels as I do will speak in the same manner. It has long been my belief, and still is my belief, that the purchase by the churches for the communion of intoxicating liquors, generally, if not always, of the most impure and disgusting character, and the " except for sacramental purposes" in Prohibitory the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. Mark xiv, 23-5\—And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said unto them: This is my blood of the new leslament. which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Luke xxii, 19. 10 —This do in remembrance of me. Likewise aUo the cup after supper, saying : This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. The only words used by our Saviour defining the ingredients of the ''cup," it will be seen, are " llie fruit of the vine; " now the " fruit of the vine" when "new " is not intoxicating. When il has become intoxicating, it is no longer new, but old. Besides, it can be abundantly proved that the wines of commerce are made up of oilier ingredients besides "the fruits of the vine." Nay, most of it has none of "the fruit of the vine " in it. '-The fruit of the vine "—in its fresh and newest state—is unintoxicating. The wines which we substitute are net only intoxicating and adul- terated, but absolutely forged and counterfeit—the product not of the "vine," but of the Still, the Brew-house and the Drug-shop ; and the common use of which tends to debase and destroy mankind. Is it possible thai an inquiry into so solemn a depart- ure from the original institution can injure either Religion or Temperance ? In this connection, ihelearned and pious Dr. Clarke, has left on record the following emphatic language:—" This is a most wicked and awful perversion of the Lord's ordinance. The matters made use of by Jesus Christ on this solemn occasion, were unleavened bread aud the produce of the vine, t. e.. pure wine. To depart in the least from his institution, when it is in our power to follow it literally, would be extremely culpable." *"The fruit of the vine" maybe legitimately fermented or uufermented.—Rev- William B. Sprague, D. D. t Christians, is il not part of almost every prayer you offer, that God will soon open upon the wor d the millennial day ? Are you acting in consistency with your prayers, by lending your influence lo help forward this gloiiou* cause of moral improvement, which must prevail ere the millennium shall fully come ? Are you exerting any influ- ence, directly or remotely, to retard Ibis cause ? Bo you make the poison, or do you irsE il, or do you sell il ? Never open your lips then to pray for the millennium.—Rev. Will in m B. Sprague, D. D. That alcohol, whether found :.n rum, brandy or wine, is "poison," is conceded on all hands. Il is classed among poisons, because, says a learned writer, it is one of " those substances which ate known by physicians as capable of altering or destroy- ON THE COMMUNION QUESTION. 61 Laws, are among the greatest hindrances to the final triumph of Pro- hibition and the Temperance Reformation.* The clergyman Avho preached the sermon referred to in the letter already given, before a congregation of over 2,000 persons in.the city of New York, was direct from Albany. One of his hearers, a personal friend of mine, took steamboat the next day to ask of me an explana- tion, " for " said he, " no man present supposed for a moment but you were the person alluded to." I wrote to this clergyman explain- ing the whole transaction, asking him in common fairness and Chris- tian obligation to do me justice, and correct the unfounded report to which he had given so wide a circulation ; but I got no reply—and even at this day, individuals, friends, have told me that they Avere under an impression that I had in some Avay been led into acts of great impropriety on this question—dkd no wonder. In all this severe trial and controversy, I suffered greatly in feeling and estrangement of val- ued friends; my locks whitened rapidly; of about one hundred and fifty families in Albany, Avho were in the nabit of visiting mine, over one hundred immediately drew off—for said some of them, " if Mr. Delavan will by his folly disregard the usages of society, try to banish wine from the Lord's table, and render himself ridiculous, he must take the consequences." A few noble friends however stood by me, but they were very few. Had it not been for them and an abiding conviction that God was Avith me and near me, I should, I do believe, have sunk under the pressure, for the odds against me Avere fearful— learned men—scholars, Avere against me; as I trust honestly against me. While I, on my part had but little to sustain me but faith and a deep conviction that the truth and God was on my side. But this is now all past—I yet live, thank God; and Avithout a single unkind feeling towards any one of my old opposers yet living. I feel it to be my duty to devote Avhatever is left of me to the furtherance of this great cause, Avhich you love so Avell, either to aid in purifying the com- munion cup, or in any proper shape it may present itself, so far as that shall be compatible with those other duties Avhich in the providence of God I may be required elsewhere to perform. In conclusion, let me here reply to the practical question' Avhich is almost invariably asked Avhen the communion question is discussed, viz:—" IIow can Ave procure Avine the fruit of the vine, in an unintox- icating state for the sacrament, so as to avoid resorting to the vendors ing, in a majority of cases, some of the functions necessary to life."—Dr. Romeyn Beck's M ilical Jurisprud-nce. "The testimony of physicians is uniform and unequivocal. They pronounce alco- hol a poison. Tiiey tell us that it is so considered and classed by all writers on Mate- ria Medica ; and they will even point out the precise place which it occupies among the ' vegetable narcotic poisons.' "—Rt. Rev. Horatio Rotter, Episcopal Bisliop of JS'eio York. "Thai pure alcohol is poison, is an admitted fact."—Rev. Dr. E. Nott, President Union College. *"You are right; it is preposterous to fight against alcohol in other places and Welcome it at the Lord's table."—Hon. Gerrit Smith.. 6 62 LETTER TO GISNL. COCKE OF VA. of intoxicating liquors, and using their fabricated compounds, and thus avoid the inserting in laAvs against the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage the clause of " except for sacramental purposes 1" In reply to this inquiry, I remark that in my opinion there is hardly a church, whose officers could not secure grapes in their season, in quantities sufficient to prepare wine for sacramental purposes. All they Avould have to do Avould be to press out the wine from the grapes, put it into bottles—cork the same, then plunge the mouth of the bot- tles thus corked into some melted substance, beeswax and rosin, or other substances used to secure preserves from fermentation, and then keep the bottles in the same position, upside down, and deposit them in a cool place in the cellar for use when required. Thus the pure blood of the grape—the fruit of the vine—wine—unintoxicating wine, could always be secured. Or the same fruit of the vine could be boiled down to one-third, then bottled in the same wray as above stated, and when wanted for use diluted with water; this would also be wine—■ inspissated Avine. When I was in Italy, I had one hundred gallons of the pure fruit of the vine-wine, thus boiled doAA*n, and after keeping some of it for years here in my cellar, I sent a bottle of it to Professor Silliman, of New Haven, who after subjecting it to chemical test, informed me he could not find a particle of alcohol in it. Gerrit Smith writes me: " It must be more than twenty-five years since the little church with Avhich I am connected, refused to use intox- icating liquors at the Lord's table. During all this time we have used unintoxicating and pure wine. It is obtained from the dried grape or raisin." Thus you perceive, my friend, there need not be an insurmountable barrier in th3 way of introducing even in this country the fruit of the vine—avixe—at the communion table, in an unintoxicating state—all that is wanting is the WILL; and, in my opinion, an enlightened con- science in regard to the question. Having been called upon by an elder of the church to Avhich I belonged in Ballston, late on Saturday, for some of my pure unintox- icating wine for the communion next day (the same as tested by Pro- iessor Silliman), I declined, fearing another commotion like the one I had passed through in Albany. But being assured that the communion would have to be omitted unless I complied, I reluctantly furnished the wine, but on the condition that it must not be used without the con- sent of the pastor and officers of the church; and although thus used, a great commotion followed, and a grave charge brought against me for lending myself to such an innovation, if not desecration, of the holy communion. The whole matter was brought before an ecclesiastical court, before Avhich I appeared, and although I Avas cleared from all blame in the premises, yet had I not so appeared (having been sent for by express), I should doubtless have been censured. The church Avent back to the use of the liquor of commerce, called Avine, two sam- ples of Avhich Avere furnished me, which J. W. Draper, M. D., Pro- ON THE COMMUNION QUESTION. 63 fcssor of Chemistry and Natural History, New York, examined, one sample contained (to say nothing of drugs) forty-four and tAvo-thirds per cent., the other forty-two per cent, pkoof spirit. To my mind it is as clear as the noonday's sun, that the Bible recog- nizes various kinds of Avine, good and bad; that ancient Avriters who lived before, at the time, and since our Saviour, recognized intoxicating and unintoxicating Avines, pronouncing the former bad, and the latter good as a beverage; but learned men heretofore have treated the idea of the two kinds of wine intoxicating and unintoxicating, with con- tempt, branding those having that idea as " conceited innovators," insisting that nothing could be truly called Avine except intoxicating, consequently nothing fit for the communion but such Avine, and this too in the face of numerous texts in scripture, clearly defining the dis- tinction. " And the presses shall bukst out with neav avine." Prov. iii, 10. Could the wine here referred to have been intoxicating, bursting out immediately from the press ? If the views of these learned men are sound they should be sustained; if not sound, and it is found that the church has departed from the original pure symbol, and adopted a corrupting one, the sooner the church makes the correction the better—and it does appear to me that the Avoid Avine is of small amount in the controversy, the "fruit of the vine," is the thing. That when the Bible recommends the use of Avine, and Avithout quali- fication, it is good wine; when it condemns the use of Avine and with- out qualification, it is bad, deleterious and crime producing wine; for such wine no moderate use as a beverage or for communion, can, in my opinion, be defended. And it appears to me also, by making this distinction, the Avord of God is cleared from the charge of inconsis- tency, Avhich the infidel has attempted to bring against it, by making it call the same thing " good " without qualification in one place, and " bad " Avithout qualification in another. Because pure water is pro- nounced one of the greatest blessings as a drink, in the Bible, does it folloAV that the filthy Avater of the gutter and the fen is a blessing also for the like purpose ? I found even the use of my unintoxicating wine exposed me to the charge of wine drinking, indeed, to intemperance on wine, so that on the ground of expediency I abandoned its use, for I conclude the doctrine of expediency with regard to the use of Avine applies to good Avine, not bad wine. I am, as ever, Y'our devoted friend, EDWARD C. DELAVAN. Note.—It is now about eight years since I was called upon by General Cocke of Virginia to make some explanation as lo my course with regard lo the Communion question—the letter to him now republished in this volume, was prepared in com- pliance with.his wishes; the eight years which have elapsed since the letter was written, have not in any degree served lo lessen in my mind llie importance of the question lo which the leller refers The general use of intoxicating and fabricated liquor, called wine (but as a rule 64 GENERAL COCKE'S REPLY. undeserving the name), on the Lord's Table, is of vast import, and as I believe stands most formidably in the way, not only within, but without the pale of the Church of Christ, to the advance of true temperance, tolal abstinence from all that can intoxicate as a beverage. So long as "the mocker" holds possession of the Communion cup. the great enemy of the human race will not in my opinion be much disturbed by the Temperance Reformation. And may not llie timidity with which even temperance advocates approach this question, be one of the causes why the reformation is now in an inactive state? In a letter received within a few days from a valued friend, he remarks: "The great fault I have to find with you and Br. Nott's temperance writings, is the undue use you make of the Bible." Perhaps we are chargeable with this fault, if fault it is, still, as we are bid to "search the Scriptures," why not search them relative to the wine, as well as other questions, seeing thai it is a question largely introduced in the Bible—aud seeing also it is appealed to by a large body of Christian* as sanc- tioning the use of intoxicating wine as a beverage, as well a< a proper element for the Lord's Table ; and in addition thereto, they assert that the Savior of lhe world made an:l dispensed wine, intoxicating wine, lhe kind denounced in the BiWe as "a mocker" On lhe other band, a rapidly increasing host in Great Britain and in this country, after labored and devout examination, have come lo the conclusion that the Bible, rightly understood, does not sanction any kind of intoxicating liquor as a beverage in health or for Communion purposes. How important then, that dis- cussion should go on, until the question is finally settled Tne real friends of tem- perance do not favor "fallacies," but truth — and nothing but the truth will satisfy • hem ; they labor lo destroy those " fallacies " which have held the world in bondage lo strong drink, ever since lhe fall of Noah and Lot. E. C. B. South Ballsto.n, August 15, 1S64. GENERAL COCKE'S LETTER IN REPLY. Bremo, Yirginia, Nov: 20, 1856. Edward C. Delavan, Esq., My Dear Friend :—My late absence from home, must be my apology for not acknowledging the receipt of your late letter sooner. Had my mind reverted fully to all the reminiscences which your compre- hensive letter has so clearly brought back to my recollection, I know not that I should have been able to command the moral courage to urge you to recapitulate the history of the communion question as connected wnh the great Temperance reform; but, when I reflect, that great principles cannot be waived for personal consideration, I am brought fully to the conclusion— it is due to yourself, as well as the cause with which your name is identified, that a subject so connected with the success of the greatest moral revolution of the age, should be clearly set forth to the world. It appears to me hard to conceive a case to which the maxim more manifestly applies—Fiat justi- tia, mat ccclum.* In answer to your letter of the first October, I cannot hesitate to say, that but for indefatigable efforts in collecting and circulating the facts established as to the nature and effects of intoxicating drinks, in the course of this con- troversy especially, the Temperance host would have been greatly retarded, in attaining the high position it now triumphantly occupies in the cause of Prohibition. It is manifest, at first glance, at every contested point in the discussion, that disinterestedness and self-denial, on the one hand, stand in array against sordid interest an.l self-indulgence, on the other. Christianity is essentially a religion requiring sacrifices. Witness Christ himself, the great * Let justice be done, though the heavens fall. GENERAL COCKE'S RiJPLY. 65 example of this truth; and the whole tenor of his gospel; all at open war- fare with the opposing host, under the self-indulgent banners of the world and the flesh. How this simple view of the matter does not bring over all the Christian world to the right side of the question, can only he accounted for by the fact that the insidious evil of intoxication has so long had dominion over the human mind, as to have become established—a legalized strong delusion; let it be exposed. It would seem hardly necessary to do more for the ultimate success of the cause than to keep the above view before the public mind; but for the daring and outrageous pretensions of our adversaries, while ignoring the following undeniable facts, which require a passing notice, viz :— 1st. That there was unintoxicating wine in common use when Christ was upon earth ; and that the terms he used in the institution of the eucharist, unequivocally mean this unintoxicating beverage. 2dly. That the art of distillation, the principal instrument of giving to wine of commerce its intoxicating character, was not discovered until cen- turies after the canon of Scripture was closed. 3dly. That since the discovery, it has become the means, together with the other discoveries of modern chemistry, of changing the character of all the wines of commerce, and that to a degree of making a deleterious com- pound called wine, without a particle of the fruit of the vine in it. Yet, nevertheless, this anti-Christian doctrine is still maintained and acquiesced in, that the now universally adulterated and enforced wine of commerce, unavoidably including the base and often poisonous counterpart already alluded to, is as suitable an element of the Lord's supper as tho consecrated fruit of the vine. But the most adroit stroke of policy yet devised by our adversaries is tho exemption clause in the Prohibitory Laws—virtually changing the consecra- ted element with which Christ instituted the sacrament, viz : " the fruit of the vine," and substituting therefor the injurious distilment of man's inven- tion—ardent spirit. And while the church of Christ do not protest against this desecration, and by their mighty power and only delegated authority on earth put it down, the consummation of their mission to evangelize the world, must be awfully postponed. How can the conclusion be avoided, that He who knew all things from the end to the beginning, " and is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," intended to exclude from the holy sacrament this wicked alcoholic invention of man—the most prolific source of evil on earth. But why, it may be asked, did He not expressly forbid it—forestalling the evil growing out of the invention. The answer presents itself—to try the faithfulness of his professing followers. That it might be made manifest to the world who are willing to be led by the spirit of the Gospel at the expense of self-denial, and who are willing to shelter their self-indulgence and pro- tect their cupidity under the absence of literal prohibition in Holy AVrit. Here the question may still be urged upon every fair-minded Christian is it possibleto conceive, consistently with what we know and believe of the immaculate and omniscient character of Christ—who instituted the eucha rist with the fruit of the vine, unintoxicating wine—that to celebrate it as a matter of choice and not of necessity, with the wine of commerce, now known to be universally enforced by the intoxicating principle, and at the risk of using a foul compound without a particle of the juice of the grape in it—must be an offence, a crying offence against the Master of the feast. In conclusion, it may be remarked that in the providence of God there are constantly occurring new developments in connection with the Temperance 66 GENERAL COCKE'S REPLY. reformation, proving that this wonderful movement in the moral history of man has been brought forth to " try men's souls." Yours, &c, JOHN H. COCKE. EXTRACT FROM A LETTER BY HON. NEAL DOW. Portland, Maine, Nov. 20, 1856. Edward C. Delavan, Esq., My Dear Friend:— ** * » » * *•* As to the " communion question," I have no fear but the truth will finally prevail. One great aid to this, undoubtedly, will be the fact that in all the nation there is not to be purchased a gallon or bottle even, of the pure fruit of the vine, unless it may possibly be some relict of an old importation. All the wines of commerce are fabrications—the base being the neutral spirit of the shops—made from new rum or whiskey, flavored and colored to imitate exactly the various brandies, wines and other liquors, and reduced with wateT to the proper standard, and very often mixed with poisons more active and concentrated than alcohol is. In the wine countries, this same neutral spirit is also employed; and in France the beet root spirit is employed by all the "wine houses" in the fabrication of brandies, wines and other liquors; the whole " brew" being utterly innocent of grape. All this I had recently from a Frenchman, an agent of a great wine house in France; who admitted to me that this fabri- cation was universal, the grape crop having been cut off for years. But he maintained, that if no deleterious drugs were introduced—and his house never used them—the article thus produced was in every respect equal to the gen- uine, because the imitation in every particular is so exact, that the most skillful and experienced judges cannot tell the difference. All this must in time convince the most obstinate, that by employing the wines of commerce in the communion, they do not obey the injunction or follow the example of Christ—but in fact do violence to the whole tone and spirit of the Gospel. Truly yours, NEAL DOW. EXTRACTS FROM FATHER MATHEWS SPEECHES. "I have no hesitation in saying that strong drink was Anti-Christ; it was opposed to the principles of Christ—to His example—to his design and to his reign." " All are bound by the Gospel precept to practice Temperance, and that the same Gospel advises to aspire to perfection, and that total abstinence is the perfection of Temperance." " Total abstinence is not a novelty or an innovation, strong drink is the innovation, and it had no sooner been introduced than men were led astray by it." "Total abstinence is evidently the lever by which great good could be effected. It therefore becomes the duty of all to assist in working that 1 lever.'" No. 7. --------♦-♦----------■ TOBACCO, THE BANE OF VIRGINIA HUSBANDRY, BY JOHN H. COCKE, OF VIRGINIA. That tobacco is the bane of Virginia husbandry, will be shown under the three following heads : First :—It Requires More Labor than any other Crop ; Secondly:—It is the Most Exhausting of all Crops; and Thirdly:—Il is a Demoralizer, in the broadest sense of the term. Under the first head it will be seen at a glance, that it must require more labor than any other crop, because it is fully a year and a half on hand. From seed-time till harvest the wheat crop—in this climate—requires eight months and a half for its growth and maturation, and but ten months, if we include six weeks—enough for any enterprising farmer—to get the crop to market. From corn-planting to the end of housing- time, eight months are required; for oats, but little more than half this time—in short, all other crops, except tobacco, are made and gathered within the year—but as it takes eighteen months from the sowing of the tobacco-seed to the getting of the crop to market, it is evident that, for six months of the year, the planter must suffer the embarrassment of having both the old crop and the new upon his hands at the same time. Every practical man will see the trouble incident to such a state of things as this—especially the trouble of a crop so un- compromising in its demands for all the labor it requires, and to which, by an invariable rule of every plantation, " prece- 68 TOBACCO. dence is yielded so long as anything remains to be done for the tabacco,—for to its requirements everything else must give way." The history of the agriculture of the world may be challenged for a crop more elaborately tended, from beginning to end, than the tobacco crop on a Virginia plantation—and thus it is, that while full justice is done to it under the rule already mentioned —a rule as fixed and unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians—everything else is starved. And when we have adverted to some of the prominent details of the culture of this all-absorbing labor crop, it will be manifest that it is justly liable to the charge of being the bane of all good husbandry; and an insuperable barrier against the attainment of the higher degrees of rural economy, in any community where it is a staple crop. To begin aright, we must commence with sowing the seed. "Plant-patch ground," are household words with tobacco planters, and mean the richest virgin soil; some rich hollow, or piece of branch-bottom being selected,—the deeper in the forest the better, because less liable to the fly or tobacco flea. Other things being equal, branch-land is preferred, as in dry seasons the branch-water may be used to irrigate the young plants—a work required more or less every season—and, under the tobacco rule, never omitted at any expense of time or labor. Hickory, walnut, pawpaw and redbud are known to be the growths indicating the richest mould, and upon some spot where these most abound, the work of making plant-beds is usually commenced the first week in the new year—though many begin before the Christmas holidays—thus increasing by so much the time devoted to this all-absorbing crop. Such spots, in the depths of the forest, as are most densely covered with the heaviest growths are preferred, because they afford the large quantity of fuel required "to burn the plant-beds," a process deemed absolutely necessary to success.* The size of the plant-patch being determined, the timber is not only cut off from its surface, and mauled into suitable lengths for burning, but a large margin around is also cleared, experience having proved that the heaviest forest growth does not afford fuel * The consumption of large quantities of the finest fuel—for none other will answer—together with the hauling and careful management of the pro- cess, composes a large item against the all-devouring staple, of labor, time and precious material. TOBACCO. 69 enough to burn its own surface sufficiently for plants; and be- sides, it is necessary to remove the adjacent forests to let in the sun, in order to encourage the early growth of the young plants. It may safely be assumed, that for every given number of superficial yards of land sown in tobacco seed, at least three times as much is cleared of its timber, to answer the demands of burning, fencing and letting in the sun. This will afford some idea of the consumption and waste of the finest forest timber, annually, for this item in tobacco-making districts. Although, in former times, this waste of the material for lum- ber and fuel, was thought nothing of, by reason of its abund- ance,—now, in the altered circumstances of the country, leaves tobacco fairly chargeable with the ruinous consumption of one of the essential articles of rural economy, by the nature of things growing annually of more importance, as it becomes more scarce and difficult of attainment. The wood being cut into proper lengths, and mauled into convenient sizes, with the brush of the limbs chopped and mixed with it, is laid in a ridge along one side of the proposed plant-patch, 4 feet wide, and about 2 or 2 J feet thick, with the intermixture of brush ; this wood being green, must be set on fire at first with light-wood or seasoned fuel, its whole length and breadth ; and when well-fired, adding from time to time fresh supplies of fuel, and keeping the fire up until the surface of the earth is sufficiently burnt, as indicated by a reddish ap- pearance, or calcined state of the soil. The fire is then moved to the next space of four or five feet. This is done by long poles with iron hooks at the ends ; so that two or three strong hands can take hold of the burning logs and roll them from the ridge of fire to the next place to be burnt ; in the meantime the weaker hands have brought brush to intermix with the burning logi, and a fresh supply of fuel being added to the mass, the fire is kept up until the process of thorough burning is again completed ; and thus, by another and another removal and replenishing of the fires, the whole surface of the plant- patch is burnt, and is ready to be hoed up for sowing the seed. This applies chiefly to the plantations of rich virgin soils, when first brought into cultivation, but since the new impulse given to the tobacco culture by the high prices and the use of guano, many expedients are resorted to, to raise plants where 70 TOBACCO. the best soil has been long ago used up ; but in any circum- stances, the time and labor necessary for the plant-patches must be given, and although the recent use of guano has saved something in both, still this plant-patch work must be a large item in the tobacco culture. The ground being ready for seeding, it is carefully broken up, by hand-hoes, about four inches deep, taking out every root-fibre, and mixing the covering of ashes left by the fires with the soil. It must be raked, leveled and marked off into rows three feet wide, and one-half the proper quantity of seed for the whole patch sown, and afterwards the other half is sown between the lines across the first, in order to insure an equal distribution of the seed. Then, after treading over the whole surface, it is ready for covering. The straightest brush, free from leaves, is preferred for this purpose, and is compactly laid from 18 inches to 2 feet thick upon the ground. This straight and leafless brush is not often found near, and is some- times a mile off; but, be it far or near, it must be had, for no pains are ever spared in whatever concerns the tobacco. All this done, the whole is enclosed with an ample fence, which makes another draft upon the adjacent timber for the necessary fence rails. Thus the choicest spots of virgin soil in the tobacco districts are cleared for making plants, and afterwards left as useless wastes, that but mark the expenditure of sturdy labor, and vast consumption of the finest timber in this first stage of the pro- ducing of this staple of Virginia agriculture. This business of plant-patch making takes up, usually from three to four weeks of every winter. The rule is, to provide a thousand superficial yards in plant-patches for every 100,000 hills in the crop, but three or four times this proportion of plant-land is usually pre- pared in order to insure success, and after all, we often hear of scarcity and failure in plants. In a favorable season, there are always four times as many plants raised as are necessary to plant the crop, and of course three-fourths of the labor and con- sumption of the timber in raising plants, being thus surplusage, is a dead loss to the planter, to say nothing of the diminished value of his estate by these depredations upon the forest lands, a degree of reckless wastefulness incident to no other crop. In an unfavorable season the loss is still greater, for when it is too dry, the plants are watered, and when they grow slowly TOBACCO. 71 they are stimulated by top-dressing, and when the fly assails them they must be driven off or destroyed by promptly resort- ing to some of the innumerable expedients invented by this class of cultivators, of unequaled vigilance in all the other de- partments of agriculture in this or in any other country. For, as has been already said, whenever anything can be conceived, or imagined, likely to affect the plant-patch unfavorably, or the tobacco crop in any of its stages, it never escapes the tobacco- maker, and heaven and earth are moved forthwith on that plan- tation, until the needful or imaginary remedy is provided, cost what it may in labor, in teams, in vehicles, in manures, both liquid and pulverized. If the plant-patch wants watering, it is irrigated, although the water, as is often the case, must be fetched in tubs or pails on the negroes' heads from a considera- ble distance. Some of the remedies against the fly, a regular pest, more or less troublesome, are sweeping the surface with s ;ft brooms covering the plants with various powders of sup- posed off'ensiveness to the insects, shaking a sheet with the lower side covered with some glutinous sizing to catch the hop- ping insects which stick to its surface, &c., &c, consuming an amount of labor and time hardly to be conceived by one unac- quainted with the details of tobacco-making. In short, the tobacco is the idol god of the plantation, before which every- thing else is thrown down and trodden under foot; hence every other crop, getting only the leavings of this insatiable consumer of labor, manure and time, is starved literally, and the fatal consequences are everywhere discoverable through the land, as will be further seen in the sequel. Having disposed of the plant-patches for a time, except the unceasing watch against the fly, and to promote early growth by watering and manure, an interval is presented for clearing new ground for the next crop, and when the weather is unfa ■ vorable for out-door wOrk, for carrying on the stripping pnv cess of the last year's crop. Here are brought into full colli sion both crops on hand at the same time—the new crop in the plant-patch and the old crop in the houses. But to proceed in order, we must account for the presence of this old crop now in the houses ; this, of course, the product of last year's plants, after the elaborate cultivation by which it has been raised, (the details of which shall be given when we go back to the plant- patches now on hand,) has been cut when fully ripe, a state 72 TOBACCO. which requires a shrewd judge to decide, partially cured on scaffolds, and finished by firing in the houses.* It is then struck down from the tiers on which it is hung in the houses, (on sticks rived for the purpose,) during some damp and warm day in autumn or early winter, in proper order for handling, or technically, in " case," taken from the sticks, packed down carefully and straight, in close bulk, and covered thickly with wheat straw, to exclude the air, and keep it "in case,"—an in-door work always ready to be performed in the bad weather of winter, which is exultingly claimed by tobacco-makers as a signal advantage in its culture—an advantage it will be seen more than counter-balanced by other usages incidental to the year's operations. But, in any event, the old crop must be gotten out of the way before the new crop is ready to come into the houses. Here, then, we have, as before stated, both crops on hand at the same time—a conjunction of double trouble, in- cident to no other crop but tobacco, for the reason, that it re- quires a year and a half for its completion, while all other crops require only one year. Now, the young plants are to be watched, nursed, and pushed forward in the plant-patches, and the old crop of cured tobacco in the houses is to be sorted, stripped, and packed down for prizing or to be sold loose as the case may be. Formerly, all tobacco was prized into hogsheads, and carried to a public ware-house, there to be inspected by legally ap- pointed officers before it was offered for sale; but now, it is often bought up and taken at the tobacco houses as soon as it is stripped, and carried by the purchaser to his neighboring factory whence the manufactured article is sent through the length and breadth of the land. For the present, the chief supply for foreign markets is ma- nufactured at the great tobacco marts—Richmond and Lynch- burg, and a few other towns ; but the smaller factories, which are springing up in, and convenient to the few remaining fresh and unexhausted districts of virgin soil of the State, which alone produces the finest tobaccoes, will intercept the abundant supplies which have of late years erected tobacco buildings in * It is often threatened, and sometimes lost by early frost, which, from the earliest history of its culture, has been known to lead to the cutting of the crop on the Sabbath, when deemed necessary, to save it from a threat- ened frost beforo Monday morning. TOBACCO. 73 the metropolis of Virginia, rivaling in magnitude and exceed- ing in numbers the neighboring cotton factories of Manchester, and falling but little behind our unrivaled flour mills in com- mercial importance. Nevertheless, from the working of the smaller factories and the elements of instability and destruc- tiveness inherent in this product of Virginia agriculture, great changes are inevitable, and at no distant day, as will be more fully shown in the sequel. But, before we return to the new crop in the plant-patches, remembering the dangers of the fly and the retarding influence of dry spells, to be watched and prevented by the means al- ready described, we must here dismiss, for the present, the de- tails of managing the crop already in the houses, and take up the operations which demand attention for the new crop. In the tobacco-making parts of Virginia, (for there is far less than a moiety of the State now engaged in cultivating this ruinous crop), it is well understood that none other than rich land pays for cultivation in tobacco.* Thus, the best land, as a matter of course, is selected for tobacco; and whether this is new forest land to be cleared, or old land to be manured, (for no old land is ever put in tobacco without manure or some other improvement,) the very best is usually selected. The plows are first started in the old land intended for tobacco; this is deeply plowed and left to the ameliorating influences of the winter's frost. The new ground being grubbed and cleared, is thoroughly broken up with the new-ground coulters, raked, and the torn-up roots of the forest growth and brush burnt off, and is now ready for hilling. This hilling process is performed by hand-work, with hilling-hoes— an implement made for the purpose, differing from the common weeding-hoe, and leaves the earth in perfect tilth to receive the young plants when ready to be set out. While the two crops are thus both on hand, the one being handled as already described in the houses, while the other is being pushed forward for planting, with the supremacy * In illustration of this truth, as well as the more melancholy fact, of the exhausted state of the old tobacco districts, there may sometimes be seen along the margin of a public road for the distance of half a mile or more, a String of tobacco three or four rows wide, occupying the lately vacated space of a worm-fence which had protected the narrow slip froir. the ruin of the tobacco system. 74 TOBACCO. with which tobacco exacts attention above all other matters, it would be regarded as next to insanity to think of any- thing else, until the operations above described have been provided for and performed before any other work is under- taken. A practical mind will see at a glance how this mo- nopoly of labor and manure must starve all the other depart- ments on a tobacco plantation. This double pressure of two tobacco crops upon hand the first six months of the year, leaves so little time for the corn crop and oats, as necessarily leads to haste and neglect in providing for them, and whatever "is hastily done, will be badly done." And here, especially, at this juncture, maybe seen how the tobacco starves the other crops by its pressing demands, to which all other claims give place, for all the labor of the plantation to do the important work of hilling', and thus oats-sowing and corn-planting are hurried out of the way to give place to hilling for tobacco. The hilling of old ground is never done until plowed a second time after the winter plowing ; and before this second plowing, the manure is hauled and spread, in order to be thoroughly mixed with the soil by the double operation of plowing and hilling, all which will serve to show there is nothing known in field culture, more elaborately done than the preparation for a crop of tobacco by a regular trained skilful tobacco- maker in Virginia. It is no wonder then, that a crop re- quiring so much labor, and by universal usage having pre- cedence over all other crops on hand, should starve the others ; and itself being neither meat, drink, nor clothing for man, or provender for stock, should also starve (or stint at least) both man and beast. To prove the alleged charge against tobacco as the bane of Virginia husbandry, it is only necessary here to show up some of its prominent features, which will be readily recognized by all acquainted with the system. Good husbandry, as applied to agriculture, is such a course of tillage, as affords to the husbandman the largest share of profit and comfort from the products of the soil, and furthermore affords a reasonable prospect of maintaining if not increasing the productive powers of the earth for an in- definite time. To admit as a necessary result of tillage, the regular diminution in productiveness and consequent ulti- mate sterility of the soil, impugns the beneficence of Divine TOBACCO. 75 Providence, as if God had created the earth with properties destined ultimately to entail starvation upon its inhabitants. A proper farming system embraces the largest practical range of the productions of the earth, tobacco planting be- ing confined to one, is therefore the very antagonism of farming, and where it is the chief crop, little else except In- dian corn is cultivated. A few of the results as applicable to Virginia practice are as follows: Farmers produce their own meat and bread, with some to spare for supplying the nearest market town. Tobacco planters buy a large portion of their meat from western drovers, and often not a small part of their bread from such of their neighbors as are getting wise enough to make a surplus of corn—aplenty of which makes every thing plenty, and a scarcity of which makes every thing scarce, upon a Virginia plantation. Farmers can afford to spare manure to keep a grass lot or an acre or two of meadow, which give all the rich com- forts of a dairy, besides the healthful supplies of the garden and truck patch—what is over going to the corn and wheat crops. Tobacco planters will hardly spare a bushel of manure from their insatiable tobacco crop, to help make a square in the garden rich enough for Irish potatoes. Examples may be cited from that class of our tobacco-ma- kers (from 2 to 10 hhd. men) of the whole nett proceeds of their tobacco crops being paid for the bread-corn for the year's use of their families. This doubtless, is an extreme case, but an approximation to it is common. Thus the most laborious crop known to agriculture, the most exhausting of the soil, and requiring the most manure, is voluntarily un- dertaken for a full year and a half to make bread and meat for the producer's family one year, while every Tyro in agri- culture sees at a glance, that the same amount of labor and manure in one year's application would give more than am- ply sufficient bread and grain to raise the meat for the year's supply of the plantation, and save the six months of surplus labor on the tobacco crop. Verily this looks like infatuation entailed upon our suffering country by this deleterious sta- ple. But to proceed with the further details of the tobacco 76 TOBACCO. crop. Before the hilling process is over, the plant-patches must be uncovered, hand-weeded and top-dressed, and if ne- cessary, watered from time to time that all may be ready as early as possible for "planting out." And here a few minor troubles may be mentioned. The spring seasons are more unpropitious by reason of droughts than formerly, conse- quently it is not uncommon to water each plant in the hill, or after a light season, to cover each plant with a clod of the soil, which has to be watered, and taken off in time, lest remaining too long the young plant becomes coddled. This is one of the extra troubles incident to a bad planting sea- son; but another of the same sort may be mentioned here, as the morality of the culture is intended to be adverted to in the sequel. From time immemorial in the history of to- bacco, it has been the practice, when a moderate rain falls on a Saturday night, to plant on Sunday morning rather than run the risk of losing the season at a critical period of the year. As soon as the plants are fairly rooted in the hills, the process of ridging down by the hand-hoes, scraping the soil down and leaving the plant clear of grass, is soon fol- lowed by ploughing between the rows, then throwing the soil back again to the plants by the second hilling, before the grass has time to spring. In the meantime, such a pre- paratory and nursing process has pushed the crop into a rapid growth, and a portion will require priming,—taking off the bottom dwavf-leaves, and topping, leaving the regu- lar number of leaves, (which may be assumed at 8) to each plant. This work of topping is performed by particular hands trained for the purpose, and is executed with aston- ishing adroitness. Tobacco plantation-hands who cannot count fifty will acquire a sort of instinct which enables them to top tobacco with invariable accuracy almost as fast as they can walk along the row. After topping, a new trou- ble begins. At the foot-stalk of each leaf there are three embryo buds, which, as soon as the sap ascending to the top is arrested by topping, spring into rapid growth, forming the suckers, which must be taken off as quickly as possible after they grow of size sufficient to be laid hold upon. As these three crops of suckers show themselves in succession, they require constant vigilance to keep them down the greater part of the growing season of the crop, nor is this TOBACCO. 77 the only or most formidable trouble of the growing crop. The tobacco-worm, though not always equally destructive, is at all times sufficiently so to require a thorough examina- tion of every plant once in a week or ten days; and here be- gins a system of vigilant police, to keep down the suckers and destroy the tobacco-worms, which is unparalleled in the history of any other crop—requiring the examination of the whole of every superficial inch of the surface of every leaf in the crop to destroy the eggs and young worms once in every week or ten days, for an egg will hatch and the young worm spoil a leaf in that time. Soon after topping comes the second plowing, to be fol- lowed by the third hilling-up. These are the regular opera- tions when seasons are good and run in regul'ar order, but when untoward, as in extraordinary floods or droughts these are provided for by extraordinary operations, such as deep coulterings in long droughts, or an additional plowing when the earth has been settled together and baked by heavy rains. And now follows the cutting operation. The sticks being prepared and scaffolds ready, it is only the plantation vete- rans who are sufficient judges of the ripeness of the plants to be trusted with the cutting. It is a peculiarity of the tobacco, which increases the labor and trouble of saving it more than any other crop, that it does not ripen all at once like grain and grass, but in suc- cession, requiring to be saved through a protracted period sometimes of several weeks. Here again is additional trou- ble not incident to other crops. The plants when cut fully ripe, are so brittle that the leaves break off like glass until they are in some degree wilted by the sun, and must therefore be carefully handled- but, furthermore, when the weather is hot and the earth dry' must be covered with green bushes to guard against sun- burning, which, once taking place, the leaf, as far as it ex- tends, is ruined by it. This sun-burning is another evil in the tobacco-making which requires no little additional labor to guard against, by providing the green bushes and her- bage to shade the fresh cut plants, both in the field and on the scaffold. And now the housing commences; after the plants have 78 TOBACCO. hung a few days upon the out-door scaffolds, but here it must be watched also, for here it is liable also to be sun- burnt, and therefore must be protected by bush-arbors until thoroughly wilted for convenient handling in the next oper- ation of hoisting and placing upon the tiers in the houses, usually twenty feet square, made of sound logs and carried high enough to afford four tiers below joists (inclusive), to fire under, with close, tight roofs. The out-door scaffolds are made of sapling poles from twenty to forty feet long, resting upon strong forks let into the ground, so as to sup- port the polls four or five feet above the surface, and in pa- rallel lines ten feet apart, so that a fence-rail, eleven feet long, will span the interval between the poles, and overlap half afoot upon each of them; these rails are placed four feet apart to suit the length of the rived sticks upon which the tobacco plants are hung, in number from eight to twelve, and these sticks, with their quota of plants, are placed with their ends resting on the fence rails, at intervals of a foot from each other; this affords data upon which may be calcu- lated the amount of sticks and scaffolding necessary to pro- vide for a crop of any given size. From these outside scaffolds after being duly wilted, the tobacco is taken, stick by stick, and hoisted to the tiers prepared to receive it inside the house, when the firing pro- cess forthwith commences. This can only be done in the most approved way, with the best fuel, hickory or oak, cut and hauled to the houses the preceding winter, it being found to be best to be half seasoned. This firing process being critical and dangerous, is intrusted only to the most steady and careful hands, and with all possible vigilance, results in the burning of many tobacco-houses yearly. The fuel is laid in lines of logs across the tobacco-house floor under the tails of the suspended tobacco upon the tiers above, and after closing every crevice of the house, and a tight door, is simultaneously set on fire by a large number of hands and very soon heats the house to a very high degree. This, after some hours, dries the tobacco to a crisp state, and in this inflammable condition it is liable by a sudden blast of wind blowing up a spark, or by the falling of a stick to be set on fire, when the whole mass above, explodes like a powder magazine. This risk of firing has to be run TOBACCO. 79 at least two or three times in every house during the curing season before it is thoroughly prepared to be struck down and put away in buik for stripping. This brings up the new crop to the stage where we left the old one, which, in the mean time, must be handled, prized, and sent to market to give room for the new crop, when ready to be struck down and bulked for stripping. This operation consists in taking the cured tobacco from the bulks, and stripping the leaves and ruffles from the stalks; and is performed by the best judges among the hands, who, at the same time, assort the leaves, as to size, color, and quality, according to the imaginary standard which may happen to prevail as the fashion of the times, which constantly changes like other fashions; these assorted leaves are passed into other hands, who open and examine the surface on each side, and brush- ing both, are then tied in bundles of five or six; this is the last surface examination of the leaf, and upon an average of years will be found to comprehend some ten or dozen times at least, that every superficial inch, of every tobacco leaf of a well tended crop, must pass under the manipula- tion or visual examination of the operatives in making and preparing it for prizing. And here may be noticed two other troubles, more or less incident to every tobacco crop —the ground worms and the ground suckers. The tobacco worm proper, or horned worm, attacks the leaves of the plant, when grown to some size; but there is a smaller, dark, earth-colored worm, which seems to be the natural production of the highly prepared soil—loose, friable, and kept entirely clear of all living vegetable matter—which enables this earth-worm to move beneath the surface, and by an instinct of its nature it is attracted (sometimes in considerable numbers,) to the top of each tobacco hill, and cuts off the young plant, just below the surface. These ruthless destroyers must be narrowly watched, so long as the stalks have not grown hard enough to resist them. No inconsiderable trouble this, as every tobacco maker well knows. The ground-suckers spring up from the stalk below the ground, after the successive crops of suckers from the foot stalks of the leaves have been exterminated, which usually takes place some time before the plant is ready for the 80 TOBACCO. knife, and leaves some length of time for the ground-suck- ers to give trouble, as they continue to spring up until the crop is taken off. Thus it is made manifest how the tobacco crop starves all others, by demanding the largest share of labor, and all the manure—monopolizing both to such a de- gree by universal custom, as to spare but a stinted allow- ance for the garden, or for any other purpose. It is a well known common condition of tobacco planta- tions, after using up a quarter or half acre of cow-pen turnip patch,* to be utterly destitute of any succulent vege- table, or greens to boil with the bacon, for many weeks in the spring, until the advancing season for "wild sallet" comes in for the relief of the sufferers under the tobacco starvation, with poke, pepper-grass, and dandelion, kindly provided by Divine Providence, in the prolific soil of Virginia. But this starvation of man is small in comparison of tfTat which tobacco inflicts upon the domestic animals. A full crop of tobacco, as a general rule, causes a short crop of corn, and scarcity of corn upon a Virginia plantation is synonymous with hard times. The tobacco crop affording no provender for domestic animals, reduces the stock of a plantation to the scanty offal of a short corn-crop. Tobacco and grass crops may be pronounced irreconvert- able antagonists, and hence Virginia is so large a customer in the market for Northern hay. A state of things wholly chargeable upon tobacco, for it may be safely asserted that if one fourth part of the labor and manure now bestowed upon tobacco was used for the production of grass, we might be large exporters of a superior article of hay, whereas we are now importers of Northern hay. But man is so much the creature of habit, that tobacco makers are content to regard starved cattle as the natural state of things in the spring, and with a good store of dollars in the desk, to put up with stinted household comforts to the de- gree of taking his coffee without milk for many weeks in the winter—the cows having all gone dry by Christmas, and no wonder, \yhen they have no hay provided for them, and have been living since the natural grasses were killed by * The cow-pen for turnips is often seen most wastefully covered with cow dung, because the time can't be taken from the tobacco to move the pen. TOBACCO. 81 frost, upon the chaff and dry straw which happened to be on hand. The corn stalks are soon picked—and few or no shucks can be spared from the steers (working oxen), it being the experience of the country, that no other long forage, the product of a tobacco plantation, is nutritious enough to sustain oxen at work. Shucks, aided by nubbins, must therefore be relied upon for keeping up this part of the working stock of the plantation. But the nubbins (the in- ferior corn) is the customary and only resource for feeding the sows and pigs, and which, from a tobacco-starved corn crop, always turns out to be a most scanty and insufficient allowance; rarely, if ever sufficient to raise pork enough to keep the tobacco maker out of the pork market—and here is another standing count against tobacco for starving the smoke-house. But as has been already alleged, tobacco starves the corn- crib, even to the degree, that demands a large portion of the proceeds of the tobacco crop to buy the corn necessary to support the plantation. A large proportion of the middle and lower class of tobacco makers are corn buyers."* But this is not all: The tobacco planter, for the want of corn, has not only to buy meat and bread, but for the want of grass to raise them, has also to buy his mules and work borses, being virtually made tributary by his tobacco, for a primary necessity in his calling, to the western drovers. We pass on to the second division of our subject. TOBACCO THE MOST EXHAUSTING OF ALL CROPS. As proof of this, every homestead, from the Atlantic border of the State to the head of Tide-water, and several tiers of counties above, have been, until latel}', a mournful monument. This portion of the State once produced all the tobacco made in Virginia, but is now so reduced and im- poverished, that, for many years past, it has not produced a hogshead for market. Tobacco has been literally the besom of destruction, which has swept over this once fertile region, and reduced it to a state too poor to remunerate labor em- ployed in its production. And yet those who are still • Examples are known of planters who buy corn to a greater amount than the proceeds of their tobacco crops. 82 TOBACCO. engaged in its culture argue that tobacco is not as great an exhauster as Indian corn, in the face of the fact, that the inhabitants of the tobacco-ruined region still make living- crops of corn; and since the abandonment of tobacco and the introduction of marl (which they never found time to look for, or apply, while their heads were full of tobacco), are now improving their lands more rapidly than the tobacco makers, with all the late improvements of agricultural science to aid them upon the still unexhausted region of the State* It is hard to conceive of a more exhausting process than the exposure of naked, fresh-worked land to the power- ful influence of our summer's sun; this is an indispensable part of the tobacco culture, from early spring, through the two first months of summer, the tobacco land is plowed, re- plowed, harrowed and hilled, or after hilling kept carefully weeded until planted—and it is rarely the case that the crop is planted early enough to cover the ground so as to shield it in any considerable degree against the sun before August. But the argument most relied upon for tobacco is, that it is the best preparation for wheat. Admitting that it is as good as any, it is not better than fallows, acre for acre, and incidentally worse, for the following reasons, viz: the high manuring required for tobacco, limits the improvement to a smaller surface, and tobacco exhausts more of the virtue of the manure than any other crop ; nevertheless, being of a different nature from wheat, it leaves the peculiar pabulum of small grain in ample sufficiency, and so thoroughly in- corporated with the soil, by the elaborate process of prepar- ation and tending the tobacco crop, as to give successful results in the following wheat crop. But when compared in the more limited surface, by reason of the excessive high manuring required by tobacco with the Avider space which the farmer may put into the highest preparation for wheat, the tobacco system may safely be denied to be the best preparation for wheat. With the present improved system of skilful fallowing, double the amount of surface can be * It is admitted that tobacco makers, by the means of the improvements in modern culture, and the introduction of guano, may positively improve their estates, but it is confidently asserted that they must comparatively do lees in the way of improvement than they may under the abandonment of the culture. TOBACCO. 83 put into tilth,—a surface sufficient to produce thirty-five or forty bushels per acre, which, with the other advantages of the farming system, would soon leave the tobacco plantation far in the rear in point of profit; thus the argument drawn from the assumed fact, that tobacco is the best preparation for wheat, is fallacious. That tobacco is the most exhausting of all crops is demon- stated by the impoverishment it has brought upon all the counties of Virginia, as already adverted to, from the sea to the mountains, to such a degree as that its cultivation has been abandoned; and the swift destruction it is every where bringing upon the remaining virgin soils where it is still cultivated—for it is a well known fact that the richest high lands are rarely found strong enough to bear a third crop in succession, but become so much reduced by the second crop usually as to be put into wheat, to be followed the next year by corn, then again in wheat or oats—after which it is "turned out," to be added to our wide domain of "old field." After being "turned out," it is known to be incapable of ever producing another crop of tobacco, without being manured or improved by clover-rotation and plaster, and of late by guano. But, whatever may be the effect of this new improver, it cannot divest tobacco of its inherent disastrous starving influences upon all other crops, as already described; and consequently, of its fatal effects upon the rural economy of the country, according to the greater or less extent to which it prevails, and which fixes upon it, most undeniably, the character of the Bane of Virginia Husbandry. These views are addressed to the agricultural public of Virginia, as seeming to the writer to rest upon the well known prin- ciples of rural economy. Before this branch of the subject is dismissed, one further argument only will be presented, and perhaps the strongest of all — the argument from authority—the example and experience of Richard Sampson, Esq., of Little Dover, well known as the most successful agriculturist in Virginia. Mr. S., after a fair experiment of ten years, gave up the crop, and gives in a nut shell one of the best aphorisms* of his strong, practical mind upon the subject—showing the reasons why he abandoned the ruin- ous culture. He says, " he could not afford to cultivate tobacco, finding it took one half of the labor of the planta- 84 TOBACCO. tion, and yielded but one fourth of the value of the other products." OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. I will now proceed to examine some of the arguments by which the tobacco-culture is defended. Granting that a plantation, with the proper equipment of hands under the tobacco system, can work out of the soil a larger income in dollars and cents, for a limited number of years by the to- bacco crop, than can be realized in cash by a farming course —yet it may be shown, that the tobacco-culture is an illus- tration of the Fable of the Goose that laid the golden eggs —it may be worth the while in this progressive age, to pre- sent the arguments on the other side, notwithstanding the above formidable admission, sustained, as it seems to be, by "the Almighty Dollar." Not one jot or tittle of the charge against tobacco, as the most exhausting of all crops, can be abated. The impov- erished fields of the whole State, where it was once culti- vated as the staple crop, but for the last quarter of a centur}' has been abandoned because it no longer yielded a remu- neration for the labor employed in its production, is conclu- sive evidence of the alleged fact. Every county of Virginia, from the seaboard to the head of tide-water, with several tiers of counties above, in their natural state one of the loveliest regions on earth, now pre- sents a standing monument against the ruthless destroyer, in a wilderness of piney old fields and gullied hill-sides, hitherto the acknowledged fruits of the tobacco-culture. It is now argued that Virginia owes her late reduced state to the corn-culture, and not to tobacco, and as a farther apology for tobacco, that the country was originally poor. The fact that corn has been continually a profitable crop, throughout all the counties where tobacco has ceased to be cultivated, is well known; and it is equally well known that the corn crops have been steadily increasing in productive- ness since tobacco has been given up, which is a sufficient answer to the unjustifiable assumption. And as to the original poverty of the country, we need only refer to one witness to the contrary, whose testimony will hardly be questioned; the most authentic and earliest Historian of TOBACCO. 85 Virginia—the gallant and distinguished, and above all, the Christian gentleman, Capt. John Smith. (See Smith's His- tory upon the point.) If the testimony of this witness, ad- ded to the every-where-existing frightful piney old-field and gullied hill-side monument, do not convince, it may be use- less to resort to any further argument on this point. But let the subject be presented under the only aspect likely to attract the attention of the mass of cultivators—the pound, shilling and pence aspect—and results may be shown upon bases of fair calculation, that will bring the rival systems of the plantation and farm more nearly upon a par as to profits, than the larger cash income from tobacco, claimed by its advocates, would seem to allow. It may be safely assumed, that three times as many hands are necessary, and are usually employed for a full handed and well-found tobacco plantation, as for a farm of the same arable surface, upon a strictly farming system. We will make our calculations upon a medium-sized planta- tion of twelve hands ; a farm of the same arable surface, and equal value, would require four hands, and here, of course, in the all-important item of labor, the value of the hire of eight hands is fairly chargeable against the planta- tion, and forms a large offset against the tobacco cash in- come ; but it is fair here to allow that the greater cost of utensils and machinery upon the farm than the plantation, must go in abatement of the offset referred to above. Ne- vertheless, when the increased annual value of the real es- tate of the farmer is taken into the account, (as it reasona- bly should be), it leaves but a small, if any, balance of cash in favor of the plantation system, and if nearly equal at the outset, there must, soon, be a wide difference between them. If the planter, with all the modern progress of agricultural science, aided by the new fertilizers, can improve or keep up the value of his land, (a question yet requiring further experience to settle,) it may be assumed, that he cannot im- prove his land in any degree of comparison with the farmer, for reasons already, shown. The value of the real estate of the planter, if not positively at a stand-still, advances at a snail's pace in comparison with that of the skillful farmer. True, the farmer's improvements cannot be represented by any fixed quantity, for they depend upon the skill and en- 86 TOBACCO. ergy of the manager, which is ever variable. The marked difference between the two is discoverable in many points. The planter may have a larger amount of dollars to meet his indebtedness when he sells his tobacco, than comes at any one time in the year into the hands of the farmer, but the planter has to draw upon his dollars to buy a part of his bread-corn, almost all his meat, and the whole of his teams; the farmer makes and raises them all at home. The planting system is essentially connected with the credit system. Although the weed always commands the cash, yet the planter is kept behind the time, because it takes him a year and a half to compass his crop, while the farmer gets through all in a year. If the planter has any surplus funds after paying for his necessary supplies, they go to buy fresh lands and more hands to make tobacco; the skillful farmer's investments go to the addition of his real estate, an investment which never fails, as legally constituted bodies corporate sometimes do. Moreover, the farmer's improvements are identified with all the more rational endearments of home, where, besides the broad acres under a course of improving husbandry, are seen the ever fresh and still growing comforts of the garden, the verdant lawn, the shade trees, and the blithe painted cottage, and the farm yard hard by, with all its interesting accompaniments, forming a little earthly paradise. Now let us compare with this the plantation and its domicile— often a dilapidation in the midst (technically speaking) of a standing tobacco lot; if inclosed, fenced in with a worm fence made of mauled rails, including half an acre for a cab- bage patch, called the garden, leaving a narrow margin of turf around the unpainted dwelling, because more could not be spared from the tobacco crop. These form the well- known features of the establishments of many of the devo- tees of the tobacco-culture. But, after all, it is still trium- phantly harped, that the planter can make a larger amount of dollars than the farmer; but admitting it to be so, has not the time come whon the reduced state of the fee-simple value of the country calls for a change ? It is the highest aspiration of the regular tobacco maker to add to the number of his hands, buy fresh lands, and make larger crops of tobacco. TOBACCO. 87 Strange that the obduracy of agricultural habit, in our enlightened community, and this progressive age, should hold so many still spell-bound to a system which the face of the country, from the sea-board to the mountains, bears me- lancholy testimony to the ruinous effects of, in that it has converted one of the loveliest regions of the earth into a broad wilderness of piney old fields and gullied hill-sides ; nor is it within the compass of human ingenuity to conceal the fact, that this wide-spread ruin has been the work of the tobacco-culture. But we may console ourselves that "all things are muta- ble and nothing fixed," and that the culture of tobacco in Virginia, must, in the nature of things, continue to run down, and must finally give place to the more rational, mo- ral, and comfortable farming system. The blessings of this change are apparent already in all the tide-water counties from which tobacco has been longest excluded. Recently these counties are showing a degree of improvement, which will soon bring up the value of their lands to those of the best of the now remaining "tobacco-land" districts; the price of the former are steadily advancing, while that of the latter" must inevitably fall under the short process of three successive crops, which always does the work of com- pletely exhausting the richest soil for tobacco, until it is manured. But if the present high prices, under the stimu- lating artifice of the lottery, gambling principle, which of late years has been brought into the market, leads to keep- ing up the crop, the effects must be disastrous, morally, asj well as agriculturally. ' !: The mass of tobacco makers will judge of the arguments urging the abandonment of the crop, exclusively upon the principles of rural economy, but there are many individuals of the highest class amongst them—that class that consti- tute " the salt of the earth,"—to whom the matter may be presented under a far more interesting aspect, than the pound, shilling and pence aspect. I shall, therefore, address only those who hold themselves responsible for the morality of their calling. We will now proceed to consider the third and last division of our subject: 88 TOBACCO. TOBACCO A DEMORALIZER. Arator, the distinguished leader among the writers upon the subject of Virginia Agriculture, devoted a chapter to the politics of agriculture. It seems equally appropriate to introduce here, whatever can be justly said in relation to the morals of our agriculture. It may be affirmed of our day and generation, that although wickedness is rampant, and boldly makes fearful headway in the world, Christian morality is making comparatively greater progress; and, that public opinion is conforming it- self amid the general movement, and wide spread agitation of society, to a higher and higher standard of Christian mo- ral rectitude. While there has always been an influential class who have contended that mankind has ever been the same in every age, and therefore are destined to go on unchanged to the end—thus nullifying the consolatory promises of Holy Writ, for the conversion of the world—there has also been an un- broken band of believers, who have protested against this doctrine of the philosophers of the day, and who, in obedi- ence to the commandment of their acknowledged Lord and Master, have continued to pray, " Thy kingdom come." This band has been of late greatly cheered by the signs of the times; that they are honest and ardent searchers after truth, and will follow it, even to conclusions against them- selves; and to make confession of their errors before God and man is part of their sacred doctrine. They have long been known and designated as " the salt of the earth," the true conservative element of civil society, and form the only solid ground of hope for the amelioration of the condition of man. This band of believers, whose recent growth* forms a prominent sign of the times, is the only class likely to give attention to the moral aspect of this subject; they, there- fore, may consider themselves as exclusively addressed; be- cause among Christians only can be found the moral cour- age necessary to accomplish a moral reformation of magni- tude and permanency. * Witness tho thousands lately converted by the instrumentality of Chris- tian Union prayer meetings, throughout the Christian world. TOBACCO. 89 Of all the vices which have hitherto gained the mastery over our fallen race, it may be assumed without the fear of successful contradiction, that the vice of tobacco-using, now outranks all others in the magnitude and variety of its inju- rious effects. Strong drink, until of late, stood pre-eminently the master vice of the day, but now, must yield the palm, since by the glorious interposition of Divine Providence, the greatest moral reform of the age, has, in a few years, wrought the astonishing wonder of converting what was lately esteemed the token of hospitality and testimony of good fellowship, into an acknowledged shame. Who that feels a decent respect for the opinions of the most respectable portion of society, now makes the offer of an intoxicating beverage a part of the first salutation of every visitor to his house ? This custom, which universally prevailed of late, has now been driven out of the best society. It must be admitted the serpent-demon is " scotched, not killed," but is still received and cherished in upper tendom,* and the low sinks of vulgarism—the two extremes of society, which have always been the most inaccessible to the graces of Christian life—and it is sufficient for our purpose, to leave them as the chief patrons of a vice, which, in the progress of our age, has been proscribed, and in part driven out of the commonwealth of Christian morality; nothing doubting that they too must succumb to the greatest reformation which has yet been inaugurated in the nineteenth century, and is still making glorious progress. But it must be allowed that this signal victory over the almost superhuman power of common custom, sanctioned, as it was, under the revered garb of the virtue of hospitality, has not sufficed to stop the growth of other evils; butseems rather to have encouraged a new vice, grown rampant in the land, and of equal capacity for evil with its declining predecessor, with some adaptation to mischievous results peculiarly its own. Strong drink and tobacco have been aptly characterized as "Twin-demons." Nobody at all acquainted with this * This new term is now too well understood to need an explanation, 90 TOBACCO. pair, will hesitate to allow them the most intimate relation- ship at least; for they both inebriate, both produce delirium tremens, and by the testimony of the ablest physicians, and most authentic statistics, both contribute a large quota of subjects to our insane hospitals, and run up the record of prematura deaths. Here, then, are four undeniable affini- ties between the "twin-demons" in their leading traits. We shall, therefore, assume, throughout the rest of this essay, that strong drink and tobacco are, to all intents and purposes, kindred culprits, and stand equally liable to ar- raignment before the tribunal of progressive public opinion. But leaving here the lately most prominent of the demons, to the instrumentalities by which the great leader of the true moral reforms—Divine Providence—has beleagured him in his strong holds, we must turn our attention to the more recent aspirant, who has already attained an equal empire in the earth, and possesses some peculiarities more favora- ble to holding dominion over his conquered subjects, by in- fluences hitherto but little investigated, and now acting upon all races of the Earth to a degree which amounts to nothing short of positive fascination. Let a short history of Tobacco testify to the foregoing allegation. A noisome, poisonous weed—first found among the sav- ages of a country recently discovered—recently, we say, in comparison with the age of the world—so revolting to the instincts of a man as to nauseate to deadly sickness every one at its first use, and requiring more or less painful repe- tition to reconcile outraged nature to it; which, finally, by perseverance, becomes first tolerable, then, by the force of habit, agreeable, and lastly, an overmastering, indispensable want; which being indulged, becomes so rivetted upon its votaries as to defy their efforts to shake off their fetters, after finding themselves, by their own acknowledgment, cruelly enslaved. Yet, wonder of wonders ! they are held, spell-bound, by its fascination, and are reduced to the de- grading humiliation of owning themselves powerless to resist their self-imposed task-master, though well known to increase his exactions to the bitter end of delirium tremens, and fell insanity, and premature death, after promptly doing its first work of marring the image of God in his creature man. As witness, the discolored teeth and skin, the tainted TOBACCO. 91 breath, the extorted stream of tobacconized saliva, filling the once rude spitting box, now being supplanted by the more elegant adjunct in the Idol's temple—porcelain spit- toons. This symbol of the Idol claiming an equal place with, and not frequently crowding out of the household the stand and the Bible of the Christian family altar, as if to proclaim by this unmistakable ensign the inauguration amongst us of this new god of a new Idolatry. Yes, verily ! Tobacco has become an Idol God amongst us, of far more extensive, varied, and baleful influence than any other of the many Idols of Christendom. For that which occupies the greater part of our time and attention, and which can- not be classed among the duties enjoined by God, but inter- feres with those he has enjoined, and cannot therefore be the subject of our prayers, is an Idol to all intents and purposes. All our legitimate duties, to ourselves, to our families, and to society, are enjoined upon us by Divine authority, and are to be performed with diligence : vide Rom. 12, 11, " Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;" but even these duties must not be suffered to en- croach upon such portion of our time and services as the Almighty claims to himself. Tobacco claims all the time of its votaries, and places its followers in awful conflict with the Divine announcement: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Ye cannot " serve two masters." Math. 6, 24. It is undeniable that Idols abound in Christendom. All the world acknowledges money is an Idol, found every- where with innumerable worshippers—from the miser, the high priest of this order, through an infinite number of grades down to the proverbial " Jew." Fame is an Idol also, whose votaries may be counted by thousands—claim- ing for man-worship the right of prescription. Under this head may be ranged the whole class of politicians, who, with a few exceptions, give their time and talents to the Idol God. Add to these myriads of devotees to frivolous Fashion, the first class of whose disciples do little else but make every act of life a sacrifice at her shrine. These are all Idolaters, as justly offensive to the Immac- ulate God, as the Idolaters of Heathendom who worship stocks and stones. In the light of Gospel truth, our Idola- 92 TOBACCO. ters of Money, Fame or Fashion, can claim no distinction, but the distinction of pre-eminent wickedness (by the neglect of better opportunities) over the Idolaters of Heath- endom; but all these fall short in point of enormity of the Idolaters of Tobacco, as will be made apparent in the sequel. Idol worshippers defend their respective Idols by what they consider appropriate pleas. Money Idolaters claim that they promote business and trade, while they only take for themselves their usurious extortions. The devotees of Fame identify themselves with the glory of the country, and glorify themselves under the banner inscribed by themselves, "Public Good:" while the class of Fashion- ables, quiet their consciences with the plea of encouraging the milliners, merchants, tailors, jewelers and artists, sus- tained by the disbursement of their superfluous wealth; but Lhe Tobacco Idolaters, while they have necessarily to resort to a greater variety of pleas, have none more available in reason or truth. For example, they plead that they encour- age agriculture, by giving employment to the land and labor engaged in producing the increase for the Idol's temple, which has been already shown to be the bane of good husbandry wherever its cultivation has prevailed. Besides, it cannot be received as a defence of a nuisance that it pro- vides its own sustentation, especially by the prostitution of Agriculture (a virtuous and legitimate calling), to the pro- duction of a deleterious drug. Some have the hardihood to claim their use of Tobacco as an "innocent indulgence;'' impiously diverting their time, their talents and their money, from the channels of God's service in the promotion of His honor and glory,— the Christian benevolent objects for which He demanded them all. Tobacco has every attribute which constitutes an Idol, and that it is an Idol of most mischievous and fatal character, the following facts demonstrate. It demands for its support an unnatural morbid appetite, which like all other morbid appetites, " grows by what it feeds on." It mars the image of God in his creature man, by discoloring his teeth and skin, tainting his breath, and by a species of salivation, diverting the saliva from its appropriate function, the pro- motion of digestion, to filling the receptacles of the Idol God, thus undermining the health, and finally overthrowing TOBACCO. 93 the constitution of the physical man. Nevertheless this demon fiend is sought after and embraced, although giving promptly these premonitory signs of the ultimate destruc- tion that awaits his votaries, showing it is a fascinating Idol;—thus we here have both Idolatry and fascination. But the peculiar and most formidable feature of this evil is its influence upon the intellectual powers. It inebriates in the most subtile and insidious manner, invading the whole physical fabric, affecting the nerves and brain, and penetrating the veiy bones and marrow of the human system (as has been proven by anatomical investigation), and through that mysterious connection of body and soul, reaches the moral and intellectual Being. For the worship of other Idols, some degrading supersti- tion, as in worshippers of Juggernaut; some sordid passion, as the miser's love of money; or the selfishness of the vota- ries of Fame, is required ; but the Tobacco-Idol demands an unnatural, artificial, deforming bodily appetite, which through the properties of the poisonous aliment that feeds it, pervades the whole structure of the physical man; as is proven by signs manifest, alrcwby detailed; but, not stop- ping here, invades through the media of the stomach, nerves and brain, the empire of the mind : soothing it into a pecu- liar state of inebriation—inebriation of a different sort from that produced by Alcohol, but not less fatal in the end. It does not madden its victim at once into acts of violence and insanity, but soothes him into a state of dreamy indo- lence, good for air-castle building, but ending in making him " good for nothing.'' Herein we see how the Tobacco Idol is the most formidable of the Idols extant in the world, for it leads its deluded votaries to conclude that the specu- lations of a fuddled brain are really better than sober medi- tations. And so far does this delusion prevail with many, that they declare that they can study and excogitate nothing so well, as in the Idol's temple, with his appropriate sacri- fice in their mouths and noses, and his open receptacle at their feet, receiving the exacted tribute of their violated natures. Verily, there is nothing in the History of the Idolaters of the Earth, which looks more like fascination than this smoking, snuffing, chewing and spitting Idolatry, which first poisons the body, then deludes the mind, and 94 TOBACCO. finally makes of its victim a hopeless, driveling slave to an unrelenting master. But there are other counts in the indictment against Tobacco. It is the most fascinating of all the Idols of man —extending to the perversion of his moral sense and reason- ing powers, so much so as to make men defend the absurdity, that the sin of idleness is an innocent indulgence, and the dreamy castle-building of an intoxicated brain is improved and profitable meditation. Even ministers of the Gospel are known to defend themselves in this vice, upon the plea of " innocent indulgence." What fascination does it evince to call such an appropriation of time and money, as is re- quired for the Idol's service, an "innocent indulgence." If it be granted, as we hear it is claimed by some as an apology for this vice, that it is no obstruction, but a facility to thinking and intellectual labor, this would lead to the rather dangerous conclusion, that thinking can be better done in a state of inebriation than a state of sobriety—to say nothing about the money for cigars, &c , necessary to furnish out the Tobacco-" feast of reason and flow of soul." The results of such thinking could hardly be con- ceived quite an acceptable offering to the throne of grace. It would be difficult to conceive a stronger caricature of Christian devotion, or a more daring mockery of God, than the picture of a human being upon his knees, and in the at- titude of prayer, with a lighted cigar in his mouth, and altogether of a piece with Pope Pius IX. taking his snuff while performing high mass. Need we farther proof that the influence of this Idol amounts to fascination, when we see the powers of the human understanding so perverted as to make men—sober-minded and discreet upon all other sub- jects—resort to flimsy reasons and wildest theories to defend their devotedness to their Idol God. A reverend and sage professor is known among us, who argues that Tobacco is as clearly a necessary of life, to sus- tain and minister to the nervous system, as are meat and bread to sustain the other portions of tho body. It is known to be a settled opinion with the medical faculty that nervous diseases have greatly multiplied, since the inauguration of the Tobacco era, and to be alarmingly TOBACCO. 95 increased with the increased use of Tobacco in every com- munity. Another of the peculiar effects of this arch Idol, is its thorough pervasion of the tissues of the body penetrating even the bones and marrow. No wonder then where this subtle poison has been long, habitually used by both sexes, the children are born with the appetite; smoke in infancy, and thus sensibly dwarf the race, as is notoriously the case with the West Indian and Mexican nations. Witness the well established opinion that one Anglo-Saxon in our late war with Mexico was equal to two Mexicans. And yet as a farther proof of the character of the Arch Fascinator, our Anglo-Saxons have returned more excessive users of Tobacco than before the Mexican war. Again, the Tobacco Idol demands constantly increasing devotions from his worshippers, until they can neither live, nor move, nor enjoy their being without the appropriate tribute in their mouths or noses. The natural aversion to the sickening drug, obliges all (except the thoroughly tobacconized Mexican and West Indian races, who are now born with the appetite), to begin with the moderate use ; but all experience shows a steadily increasing desire for it, until it becomes like the dram, with the habitual toper, the first thing thought of in the morning, and without the usual intermission of the drinking usage until midday, occupies every hour until bed time, and then is often taken to bed with chewers and snuffers ; but smokers have to rise and soothe their sleepless nerves, by ministering the incense to the unrelenting Idol God in the dead hours of night. Here we have an example of the colorable pretence for the fascinated professor's nervine theory. Again, there is a palpable reason why this Idolatry occu- pies its votaries more entirely than any other, because it lays hold of the body as well as the mind, and levies a money tax upon its spell bound victims, and amuses by di- versifying the worship paid to this Idol ; for it has become mixed up with Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, and of late is becoming, in the form of Spittoons, a part of the Furniture of our Churches. It places the worship of this Idol temple in direct antag- onism with the word of God, which says, "ye cannot serve 93 TOBACCO. two masters." The oilier Idolaters of Christendom profess to have intervals of time to devote to the worship of God, but this appropriates all the time, and thus virtually claims partnership in Christian duties, and to have discovered that two things may be done at the same time, better than one thing at a time ; reversing the experience of the world, by the practical assertion of an absurdity. * But let us consider what are the advantages claimed by the votaries of this Idol, to countervail the legion of evils known to be in its train. The answers given to the oft re- peated question, what good does Tobacco do ? are so vari- ous and unsatisfactory as only to serve as farther proof of its fascination. Some claim that it is "the sovereignest thing on earth for the preservation of the teeth," while many are known to have lost all their teeth who use it freely, and all find it fatal to their gums.* But some laud it highly for facilitating the process of thinking, and wonderfully aiding intellectual labor, which involves" another absurdity; that mental operations can be better performed in a state of ine- briation than in a state of sobriety ; to say nothing of the money necessaiy to provide the material for the incense for the Idol's altar. Can any influence leading men to such ridiculous absurdi- ties be anything short of fascination ? Let then this wide- spread evil influence be called by a more becoming and ap- propriate name; let it be stampt "the fascinating Idolatry," for nothing less can account for its inroads upon and its perversion of the reason and common sense of mankind. Herein is seen the peculiarly mischievous effects of this Idol over all others ; while the time and attention and money it demands, brings its votaries in direct violation of God's claims to the undivided homage of his creatures, and holds them accountable for the gold and the silver which " are mine, saith the Lord." The inebriated state of the * An able writer says, " the pernicious effects of Tobacco on the teeth are easily proved, although it has been pretended by some that Tobacco is a preservative of these useful organs—the delusion grows out of the fact that Tobacco is found sometimes to have the effect of benumbing the nerve of the aching teeth. The first and most prominent effect of Tobacco upon the teeth is that it softens them—in some instances they become literally worn to the gums, and in others decay," but as often as either, drop out whole iu a sound state from the destruction of the gums. TOBACCO. 97 intellect, which is the inevitable effect of the drug, and the essential characteristic of the sacrifice for the Idol's altar, renders the insulting claim of a simultaneous service to God and Tobacco doubly wicked in view of the divine mandate, " ye cannot serve two masters." But the great and master stroke of this Idol (which but farther proves its fascinating power), is to have kept the pious part of its votaries, so long in profound ignorance of their inveiglement. This wonderful delusion is effected in great part by not calling things by right names: the "soothing effect;" the "innocent indulgence;" the "pleasant excitement" in common parlance, must be baptized with the name of inebriation ; for it is inebriation to all intents and purposes, as has been already shown by signs infallible and known to all men, and here in truth and reason may be called by the plainer and better understood name of " Tobacco-drunkenness." Tobacco users may be startled at first, and protest against the boldness of bringing their "pleasant excitement;" their "innocent indulgence," into the same category and under an odious name, which is de- nounced as sin, but they cannot deny, that although Tobacco inebriation does not drive men to the acts of sudden mad- ness which alcoholic drunkenness does, that its results are equally disastrous, by a slow but not less sure process,— producing in the end, dyspepsia, shattered and tremulous nerves, delirium tremens, insanity and premature death. It may be confidently asserted that tobacco stands con- victed of every attribute that constitutes an idol—an idol, as already shown, of the most demoralizing, and otherwise most extensively injurious character to be found in the history of our fallen race. Its evils were early detected, and although exposed by the influence of royalty* and edicts of arbitrary governments, denouncing the penalty of deathf against offenders—even these potentates, backed by the unanswerable arguments in support of their cause, availed nothing in staying the progress of the vice of tobacco-using—proving that in the designs of an overrul- ing Providence—apparent present evils were being made « Witness King James's Counterblast. f The Ottoman Sultan, capital punishment. 9 98 TOBACCO. subservient to producing ultimately, greatly overbalancing good. Mysterious are the ways of Providence ! and in no part of the divine economy does He appear more mysterious than in making the wrath of man to praise Him. But as to the extent of the tobacco idolatry—the millions of men who worship in its world-wide temple—the millions of money expended to produce and consume the incense offered upon the altars of the modern god, prove the truth of the assertion, that all other idolatries are small in com- parison with it. It undeniably consumes more of the trea- sure of the earth for its support than is expended for all the Christian, benevolent and educational institutions of the age, until it becomes so interwoven in the very texture of society, as to stand pre-eminently the master vice of our sin-ruined world. If the charges made against tobacco be sustainable, how can it be otherwise accounted for that natural human beiDgs become its votaries—its deluded victims—its abject slaves—but by diabolical fascination ? A further question may be asked—how could such a loathsome evil, poisoning the bodies and destroying the souls of men, have attained to such an overmastering power in all the earth? The only true solution to be given, is the fallen state of man: " God made man upright, but be has sought out many inventions." "Man is as prone to evil as the sparks fly upwards." But in the present moral enlightenment of the world, and this progressive age, why do not Christians rise up and protest against the degrading and disgusting idolatry? Simply because the idol has an overwhelming majority en- listed on his side, and it is to be feared only for the want of faith and moral courage on the part of the followers of the Great Captain of salvation. In the gloomiest day of the history of our holy religion, 7,000 men were found who had not bent the knee to the idol god of that day—and shall there not be found among the millions of professing Christians of our day, a sacra- mental host of God's elect—a band of volunteers to rally to the summons of the Almighty conqueror—and range them- TOBACCO. 99 selves under the standards inscribed by His own finger with such inspiring mottoes as " Come out from among them and be ye separate." " Ye shall not follow a multitude to do evil." "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." What boots the superior number of the enemy against the host of the Almighty, who can make one to chase a thousand, and who has already made proclamation that His warriors elect, bearing the aegis of faith, shall "put to flight the army of the aliens." All things indicate that the crisis has arrived when the conflict with this army of new idolaters already begun, must wax hotter and hotter to the end—for it is in manifest ac- cordance with God's word, that every form of idolatry must fall, before Christ's kingdom can come upon the earth. And what Christian, whose eyes are not " holden," may not see that this most universal of all idolatries, has been Provi- dentially permitted in mercy and divine goodness to offer a new test to show who " will come out from among them," and stand on the Lord's side—by abandoning a monstrous evil—by a simple act of self-denial, far easier than giving up father or mother, sister or brother, house or lands, or a right hand, or a right e}'e, as in duty bound under our coven- ant with God ; but herein, by a new and glorious dispensa- tion, nothing is required to be given up but a morbid, un- natural appetite, with its legion of concomitant evils, to be replaced by innumerable present blessings, and in the future an eternal weight of glory. "How wonderful is the good- ness of God, His ways past finding out!" It is freely granted that the cultivation of tobacco, in the last preceding ages, was the best practical course of open- ing a wilderness and subduing the earth for the purposes of wholesome agriculture ; but that mission of tobacco has been fulfilled, and the country well-nigh destroyed by its impoverishing effects upon the soil, thus showing a neces- sity for a change of the fatal culture which produces only a deleterious, demoralizing drug, for a course which pro- duces the wholesome necessaries of life. We have not yet presented a tythe of the evils to be sub- 100 TOBACCO. dued, and the benefits to be won by the anti-tobacco warfare. If any human mind has yet fully comprehended, surely no one has as yet fairly shown the length and breadth and depth and height of the gigantic evil. Tobacco stands convicted by the unanimous verdict of its own devotees, that in the end it does them no good, but on the contrary, much harm. And here, finally, it may be well, before dis- missing the subject, to exhibit the protean monster in some of the features in which he mars the image of God in His creature man, although become so familiar to us as hardly to be recognized as the offspring of their true parentage. Nevertheless, it may be for the good of some to be told again that the discolored skin and stained teeth, nervous tremor, dyspepsia, a species of salivation, both filthy and disgusting, and a tainted breath, which sooner or later makes the man a moving mass of offensiveness in the nostrils of the uncontaminated, and how much more so in His, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity—all, all these awful effects are the work of tobacco, seen every- where around us, and known of all men. Who would dare to impugn the wisdom and economy of God's Providence, in tolerating for a time, and for temporary good purposes, that which may now be demon:, trated to be an unmitigated evil. This, it is humbly conceived, may be in strict keeping with the principles of divine government, for He who sees all things from the beginning to the end, carries on His government of the Universe by machinery too vast for the limited comprehension of short-sighted mortals—the light revealed by the progress of Christian morals must be our polar star. If this skeleton sketch of the mammoth subject of the day shall bring out abler minds to do justice to it, I shall be content. That it must sooner or later be called up to public attention is manifest, for while the world is so fully taken up in the tobacco-sin, it may be confidently asserted it can- not be evangelized. But it is announced in His word, that the world shall be evangelized, and everything inconsistent with His purity, shall fall before the sovereign power of His immaculate truth. Note.—While in Virginia* in 1833, to'attend a meeting of the Virginia State Temperance Society, of which General John H. Cocke was President UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE. 101 (more recently President of the American Temperance Union), he was largely engaged in the cultivation of tobacco. I thought then as I think now, that intoxicating drink and tobacco aie twin sisters, employed by the author of all evil to destroy the human race, and people his kingdom. Gene- ral Cocke, while at his hospitable mansion, kindly iistened to my argument in favor of extending the pledge, so as to include all intoxicating liquors, and the evils resulting from the cultivation and use of tobacco. Wine, at the time, was on his table, it was ever after removed from it. The foregoing will be satisfactory evidence as to his present views with regard to tobacco E. C. D. UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE, TO PROCURE THE TOTAL AND IMMEDIATE LEGISLATIVE SUPPRESSION OF THE TRAFFIC IN ALL INTOXICATING LIQUORS. President of the Alliance, Sir WALTER C. TREVELYAN, Baronet. Vice-Prisidents, The Right Hon. LORD BROUGHAM. Sir AVilliam A. Beckett, late Chief Justice of Victoria. Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., Brayton, near Carlisle. Sir J. S. Forbes, Bart., Fettercairn, N. B. Sir G. B. Pechell, Bart., Millbrook, Southampton. Sir John Richardson, C. B., Grasmere. Sir Robert Brisco, Bart., Thursley, Carlisle. The Very Rev. F. Close, Dean of Carlisle. Lawrence Heyworth, Esq., Liverpool. William Euing, Esq., Glasgow. Richard Dykes Alexander, Esq., Ipswich. Frederick Schwann, Esq., Huddersfield. The Rev. William M'Kenow, D. D., Manchester. James Haughton, Esq., J. P., Dublin. The Rev. W. Urwick, D. D., Dublin. John Hope, Esq., W. S., Edinburgh. The Rev. Jabez Burns, D. D., London. Edward Backhouse, Esq., Sunderland. Joseph Thorp, Esq., Halifax. The Rev. James Bardsley, M. A., Manchester. John Priestman, Esq., Bradford. Thomas Clegg, Esq., Manchester. Joshua Harvey, Esq., M. D., Youghal. J. Cadbury, Esq., Birmingham. William Harvey, Esq., J. P., Salford. The Hon. and Rev. Leland Noel, Exton, Oakham The Rev. Canon Jenkins, M. A., Llandaff. The Rev. Chancellor Morgan, M. A., Machen, South "Wales. 102 UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE. Wilson Crewdson, Esq., Manchester. Peter Spence, Esq., Pendleton. Charles Jupe, Esq., Mere, Wilts. Joseph Pease, Esq., Darlington. The Rev. G. T Fox, M. A., Durham. Robert Charleton, Esq., Bristol. The Rev. Prebendary Venn, Hereford. Joseph Crook, Esq., Bolton. The Rev. Canon Stowell, M. A., Salford. Dr. Lee, J. P., Hartwell Park, Aylesbury. Handel Cossham, Esq., Bristol. Wilfrid Lawson, Esq., M. P., Bray ton, Carlisle. Alex. Thomson, J. P., F. R. S., Banchory House, Aberdeen. Edward Vivian, Esq., M. A., J. P., Torquay. Benj. Whitworth, Esq., J. P., Manchester. Robert Hey wood, Esq., J. P., Bolton. Edward Pease, Esq., Darlington. C. J. Darbishire, Esq., J. P., Rivington. Rev. Win. Mackenzie, M. A., Douglas, Isle of Man. William Harvey, Chairman Executive Council. Samuel Pope, Barrister-at-Law, Hon. Sec'y. Thomas II. Barker, Secretary. Offices of the Alliance, 40 John Dalton St., Manchester; and 335 Strand, London, where the friends of Temperance from any part of the world, wiU always be kindly received. No. 8, ■------------------••-------------------■ A CONDENSED REPORT OF TnE TRIAL of the cause of JOHN TAYLOR VS. EDWARD C. DELAVAN. PROSECUTED FOR AN ALLEGED LIBEL. TRIED AT THE ALBANY CIRCUIT, APRIL, 1840. TRIAL FOR LIBEL. Circuit Court, April Term, 1840. Judge Cushman presiding. John Taylor, \ vs. Edward C. Delavan. Counsel for plaintiff, Messrs. Stevens, Reynolds, McKown and Van Buren. Counsel for defendant, Messrs. Beardsley, Taber and Whea- ton. the prosecution. Tuesday, April 21, 1840. Mr. Stevens opened with a brief statement of plaintiff's case, and proceeded to read the alleged libel from the Evening Jour- nal of the 12th February, 1835, as follows : "TO THE PUBLIC. " The following statement has been made by a respectable and responsible person, in the presence of Chief Justice Savage and E. C. Delavan; (the former took down the testimony.) The individual making the disclosure felt a delicacy in giving his name to the public; but, should his statements 104 BEER TRIAL. be denied, he stands ready, not only to give his name, but make oath to the facts." " He states, that so long since as six or seven years he was knowing to the fact of Fidler and Taylor's, and Robert Dunlap's malting establishment on the hill in Albany, being supplied with water for malting from stagnant pools, gutters and ditches, often in such a state as to be green on the sur- face; that such water was collected for several seasons to his knowledge. That he had not only seen the water of this character collected, but deposited in the malting establishment for the use of malting. That no attention was ever paid to cleanliness; the water was often taken from puddles in which were dead animals. When the water was low in the pools, holes were some- times made, in which the pail was sunk ; and he had seen the sides of it come in contact with dead animals in a state of putridity; has seen water carried to the malt houses nearly as thick as cream with filth; saw last winter water passing on carts coming from the direction of the same filthy ponds, and taken to the malt houses. There are several malt houses on the hill, all of which, he believes, rely on water taken from such places as he has described, occasionally. That the facts here stated he believes to be known to hun- dreds residing in the neighborhood of the malting establishments. He states, also, that seven hogsheads of water are usually placed in a steep-tub at a time, and it is then filled with barley; that he has seen a deposit or sedi- ment of from ten to twelve inches of the most filthy matter settle to the bot- tom from that quantity of water. This has been from water collected from the places described. That he has no unkind feeling towards any of the brewers; that he is astonished they should deny facts so easily to be proved; that he knows several cartmen who for years have been employed in carting water from the places described to the malt houses. That Mr. Fidler, now Fidler and Ryckman, was recently of the firm of Fidler and Taylor; and that Mr. John Taylor was of the same firm." Also that of the 17th February, 1835, as follows : " TO THE PUBLIC. "The conductors of the Temperance Press publish nothing which they do not believe to be entirely true; the statements with regard to impure water made use of by certain malting establishments were furnished by respectable citizens, who have given their affidavits as to the facts. When legal steps are taken by those who feel themselves aggrieved, the public may rest as- sured that nothing has been stated but what can be most abundantly sus- tained by proof." For the publication of these libels Mr. Taylor claimed to recover $70,000 damages. The publications were proved, and the only question was as to their truth or falsity. Mr. Delavan instructed his counsel to put him before the jury on the truth of the matter charged. The plaintiff's counsel here rested. Mr. Taber opened the defence to the jury, and thus stated the issue to be tried: That you may understand this case, and as the counsel for BEER TRIAL. 105 the plaintiff has not stated what the issue is, it becomes my duty to call your attention to the distinct issue. This case has been before the supreme court, or rather another one by Mr. Fidler, the partner of Mr. Taylor, precisely like this, and the pleadings in that case have undergone the revision of that court. The precise question is thus stated by the Chief Jus- tice : " That six or seven years ago (that is, previous to the publication,) tho plaintiff caused his malting establishment on the hill in Albany to be sup- plied with filthy, putrid water, such as is taken from pools, gutters and ditches, in which were dead, putrid animals; that the water was often so foul and polluted as to be green on the surface, and nearly as thick as cream with filth; that such water had been used by plaintiff for several seasons in malting for his brewery; and that steep-tubs used for that purpose, which usually contained seven hogsheads, had a deposit of ten or twelve inches of the most filthy matter that settled to the bottom of them. This is the es- sence of the charge as laid in the declaration, as understood by the general reader, and which the defendant was bound to justify. Thomas Coulson (class teacher, Methodist Church) was first sworn for defendant: Examination direct: I resided on the hill in Albany about nineteen years ; had a glue factory near Willet street; carried on that glue factory fourteen years; the malt house of tho plaintiff was built previously; I knew the malt house of Fidler & Taylor near me ; there was a pond between my glue factory and this malt house ; the water in this was always bad ; in a putrid state in the fall of the year ; different kinds of animals were floating in the water; in the warmth of the weather the water was green ; dogs and cats and hogs I've seen ; I have seen a dead horse that died there, pretty near the pond, on the rising ground near it; the horse remained there; they don't do anything in summer in malting ; when the fall comes they take the water ; they commenced about October; there were dead animals in the water; it would not do to make glue of that water; it was what I call rotten water; I have seen it taken in hogsheads into the malt house—poured through at the end of the malt house—into Taylor's malt house, through 106 BEER TRIAL. troughs ; the wash of my glue factory ran into the pond; a great many cart loads of this water were carried into the malt house; very often two carts were going at once ; as far as I can recollect, they began to dip up and carry this water into the malt house in '26 or '27, and continued until '33 or '34 ; they drove the cart and horse into it, and dipped it up with a dip- per ; sometimes with a long handle and sometimes with a short one; have seen Mr. Taylor there. Cross-examined: Did you at the time know what they were doing with that water ? I could not know; saw where it went to ; don't know what purpose they put it to ; I saw them run- ning it into the house ; that is all I can say on the subject; I have seen it dipped when frozen. When you saw it, was it frozen ? Sometimes. Sometimes not ? In frosty weather it was frozen, in warm weather not. The Court.—How did you see it ? I saw it as they passed me, and as I passed them ; the pond was near me. Direct resumed : My glue factory was distant from the pond perhaps seven or eight hundred feet; from my house, about five hundred feet; the pond and the malt house were in plain sight from the glue factory and the house. Cross-examined : Hardly ever saw the time in the fall when there were not dead animals in the pond. Henry Rector, sworn.—Examination direct: Resided in this city nearly twenty-seven years; am a surveyor and archi- tect ; drew this map ; [map shown] it is substantially a cor- rect representation of the relative position of objects ; from the nature of the ground I should think the pond was stagnant water ; saw dead animals there a few days ago. John Savage, (late Chief Justice,) sworn.—Examination direct: I resided in Albany in 1835 ; I lived here from 1822 to 1837 ; I lived on the hill; had occasion to observe, previous to 1835, the pond spoken of; saw it frequently, from 1827 to 1837 ; being out of health, I was in the habit of riding by it BEER TRIAL. 107 with my family ; the water was always dirty; never saw it otherwise ; it was not fit for food or drink ; my horse refused to drink it; I have seen dead animals there ; and I believe I have seen dogs and cats and hogs ; observed this for several years, between 1827 and 1835. Charles W. Harvey, sworn.—Examination direct: I am a surgeon dentist; resided in Albany from 1811 up to 1829 ; returned to the city in 1832 ; resided from 1824 to 1828 with John Quinlan, my brother-in-law; he was a gardener ; some- times employed as a cartman; have assisted him in drawing water for the plaintiff's malt house, prior to 1835 ; we got it mostly from the big pond; the pond south of the plaintiff's malt house, on Lark street; the water was let into the build- ing from the bottom of the hogsheads, by a conducto:-, through a trough ; sometimes into a well or a steep-tub; I think in a well; either one or the other ; when let into the well, it was pumped out into a steep tub ; I assisted in drawing this water, I think, from fifteen or twenty places ; from the big pond ; that was always a standing source ; and then, after rains, from whatever points were nearest the malt house ; from puddles on the surface, and from Poor House creek, and from the vicinity of Judson's slaughter house ; that was located, I think, on Orange street, north of the Schenectady turnpike; there were puddles in front of the grave yards that we got water from ; part of the offal of the slaughter house drained into the pond from which water was taken, near the slaughter house ; I drew water from the big pond four or five seasons—the pond in the vicinity of the malt house; the character of the water in that pond was very bad ; bad, from the fact that it was receiving almost all the offal from the hill; dead hogs and dogs and cats and horses all drawn very near the pond ; many in the pond, and with the sun on them, making it exceedingly foul, so that in drawing it frequently made me sick ; on the banks of the pond there were dead animals ; almost always more or less dead ani- 108 BEER TRIAL. mals in the water; I have seen dead cats and dogs while dip- ping, and I think hogs ; not sure, however ; seen dead horses up towards the glue factory ; they were left there to decay; commenced dipping the first cold weather; I think in October or thereabouts; these four or five seasons that I spoke of, I began to draw water for this malt house, I should think, in the commencement of the season—of the malting season ; this con- tinued as long as the cold weather continued ; they required cold weather for malting; I dipped water in the winter, when it was frozen—cut a hole through the ice ; I have frequently seen dead animals there in the winter; they would come to the hole from the wash of the water ; I have drowned cats in these holes myself; it was the ordinary way to drown cats in these holes ; they came to the hole frequently, so as to be trouble- some ; the water was green in the fall; not so green as I have seen it before; I suppose from the decomposition of animal matter and filth ; there were some privies on the ravine, lead- ing directly down to t'.ie pond ; seven hogsheads of water were put into a steep-tub at a time ; the barley was then let in ; I believe usually after the water is put in ; it is suffered to re- main forty-eight hours ; the water is then drawn off; I have seen barley taken out after being soaked ; the sediment at the bottom was very thick; after the water is let off, and it has drained some time, the maltsters throw it out with scoops, and as they approach the bottom it is frequently discolored—in other malt houses more than in this—the barley and sediment settling together, and the mass being cleaner as you get up to the top ; sometimes more sediment than others, depending on the cleanliness of the water from rains or other causes ; have seen the plaintiff about the malt house about the period I speak of; I think I have seen Mr. Fidler there more than Mr. Tay- lor, but I have seen them both there ; there was no other pur- pose for which water was needed in that malt house, except for malting ; the water was not all used in the steep tubs ; it waa BEER TRIAL. 103 used in sprinkling the barley after it was thrown out;• but it was all used for the purpose of malting. Israel Smith, (elder in Rev. Mr. Kirk's church,) sworn. —Examination direct: Witness knew the pond called the big pond ; heard the testimony of Judge Savage as to the charac- acter of the water; generally when witness had seen it, the water looked filthy ; had frequently seen dead animals in it as he was riding by—dogs, hogs and cats; had frequently seen carcasses of dead horses lying on the margin of it. Witness spoke of a period some sixteen years ago, when he owned a dyeing establishment at Norman's kill. Fifteen years before, and including 1835, witness passed the pond frequently; some- times three or four times a week. The character of the water during the fifteen years spoken of was very much the same, differing with the different seasons of the year. The court here adjourned until Wednesday, April 22. Garret Middleton, sworn.—Examination direct: Wit- ness lives in Spring street, on the hill; knew the malt house on the corner of State and Lark streets; believed it used to belong to Fidler and Taylor ; is acquainted with the pond south of it, or with the pond that used to be there ; it is partly filled up now ; witness drew water from that pond some years ago—twelve or fourteen years ago ; drew it to Mr. Taylor's malt house, corner of State and Lark ; drew at different times; witness let it run out of the hogsheads into the steep tub; they had a gutter to run it from the hogshead to the steep tub; saw it go in through the gutter to the steep tub; it was very dirty water, stagnant, all turned green; have seen dead dogs and cats in this pond; think I have seen dead pigs ; not positive about that; but I have seen dead dogs and cats in it; the water was such as I have described when I was drawing it. Thomas A. Hughes, sworn.—Examination direct: Reside in Washington street, on the hill; am acquainted with the malt house on the corner of State and Lark streets, and tho 10 110 beer trial. pond near it; have assisted in drawing water from this pond some time ago ; should think from ten to twelve years ago ; have drawn it to this same malt house ; can't tell how many hogsheads; have drawn there a number of times—a number of steeps ; I worked for Mr Butler, off and on, four seasons ; it ran right from the hogsheads to the steep tubs ; it was green, filthy looking water when I drew it; I have seen dogs and cats and hogs in it when drawing it; it had a green looking filthy look. James D. Wasson, (late alderman,) sworn.—Examination direct: Have been a resident of Albany since 1811, with the exception of four years ; know the pond in Lark street, and the malt house on the corner of Lark and State ; have passed it very often for a great many years—perhaps at all seasons ; I should think the water in the pond unwholesome, bad water generally; I think I have seen in it cats and dogs and hogs—dead and alive; I have seen live hogs wallowing there in the summer season ; no recollection of ever seeing anything on the banks. Amos Fassett, (elder in Rev. Dr. Campbell's church,) sworn.—Examination direct: Am acquainted with the pond and malt house in question ; have seen water drawn from the pond to the malt house previous to '35 ; seen it deposited in the malt house, at the north end; the water I should call very impure ; it has always been bad; I have known it for a great number of years ; it was a place of general deposit for all kinds of dead animals, at all seasons of the year; I have known the pond twenty-five years; the water has been growing less every year, the pond gradually filling up ; when it was deep, the water was not so impure as now, though it was al- ways a receptacle for dead animals; I have seen dead dogs and cats and hogs there—dead cows on the ice in the winter—dead horses; I have seen the water at different times, when passing, put into the malt house ; I should think more seasons than one. BEER TRIAL. Ill Patrick Rooney, sworn.—Examination direct: Previous to 1835 lived on the hill with Mr. Delavan, and still live in his family; been with him since 1828; when employed as a coachman, and in driving the cow to pasture morning and night, two seasons, frequently passed the malt house aud pond; these seasons were either '31 and '33, or '32 and '34, not suc- cessive seasons; saw water taken from the pond to the malt house ; not often, once in a while ; they put it into the north end of the malt house, through a trough, as near as I could judge; I have seen this done more than one season ; it was taken on a cart in a hogshead. John Lossing, sworn.—Examination direct: Have resided in the city twenty-eight years ; I am acquainted with the malt house and pond spoken of; have observed the water in the pond at different times for five and twenty years, I suppose ; live not far from it in Washington street; I should call the water impure; it was a place of deposit for dead animals; it was not fit to be used for drink or cooking; I have seen dead horses, hogs and dogs, cats, various things in it; Mr. Gibson had a slaughterhouse that led right into it; it has been moved from there some years ; can't tell how long ; the filth from the slaughter house went right into the ravine; stood as Wilson's does in regard to the creek; all the slaughter houses on that route ran into the creek—Mr. Perry's, Mr. Wilson's and an- other ; in fact there are four—for, besides these, Mr. Hartness occupied one; I should think all these emptied into the creek previous to 1835. The court here took a recess until three o'clock, P.M. Laban W. Keith, sworn.—Examination direct: I have resided in the city about twenty-one years; have known the malt house in question ever since it was built, and the pond near it ever since I have been here ; the water in the pond has always been pretty poor; I have seen dead animals in there of all descriptions almost, cats, dogs, hogs, and have seen one 112 beer trial. dead cow in there; of course there was a bad smell about the pond when these creatures were in it ; I certainly have smelt it; recollect a drain or ravine from the rear of the buildings on Washington street, before the railroad was built, and that water ran in it into the pond ; there was a spring in Spring street, and considerable ran from that through the same ravine into the pond; when there was a freshet it washed everything into this ravine—all kinds of filth I suspect. Rorert Harvey, sworn.—Examination direct: Reside in the city; have resided here thirty-nine years; have been nine years out of the city in that time ; I was here previous to '35, and am acquainted with the pond and malt house on Lark street; the water in the pond was bad—stagnant water—dirty water ; recollect seeing carrion about there in 1818, '19, '20 and '21; am acquainted with the strangers' burying ground; it drains into a branch of the Poor House creek ; some of the places where they dig graves are quite steep; I was here in the time of the cholera, in 1832 ; witnessed quite a number of bu- rials ; witness spoke of three corpses lying in the Potters' Field unburied at one time, and of three hundred and fourteen buried in the hollow ; don't know of more than one buried in the same grave ; have not seen the Potters' Field for three or four years; was there in '33 or '34; saw then the edge of the coffins stick- ing out into the ravine ; that was where the water runs ; I am the brother of Dr. Harvey. Joseph Manuel, sworn.—Examination direct: Am ac- quainted with the creek that runs just back of the burying grounds ; as I passed I have seen blood and water come from the north, pass under the railroad and down the creek; I think this was about five years ago; have lived here eight years— ever since '32 ; I have seen blood coming down this stream from, I think, Mr. Perry's, and from another source that joins it just before it passes under the railroad ; the blood and water ran separate some distance before they mingled ; this was in BEER TRIAL. 113 the fall of the year ; and I have seen, day after day, a cart carrying this bloody water to the malt house. Lambert Clark, sworn.—Examination direct: I know the pond and malt house on Lark street; have helped to draw water from the pond for the malt house; commenced working for Calvin Butler ten years ago ; have worked for him, off and on, every winter except one — sometimes a month or two; worked for him in '32, '33 and '34; drew some of the water to the malt house; and, if I found it any ways clear, I carried it for washing. What did you do with the water for the malt house ? Put it in the gutter that ran into the steep tub. Did not go into the malt house ? I have gone into the kiln to warm myself; could see where the water went; it went into the steep tub; I have let it run out while I went in and warmed myself; have seen dead hogs, cats and a horse in the water—almost anything you could wish for ; the frame of a horse, I meant. Ever drawn any into it ? Yes, and I have carried a bag full of kittens and thrown them in. THE PROSECUTION. Launcelot Howard, (one of the prosecutors,) sworn.— Examination direct: I was a partner of Mr. Taylor in 1832 ; the malt house was built in 1823 ; I believe I may consider myself as having the entire control of the malting business from 1823 until 1832—Mr. Taylor seldom interfering—hardly asking me a question about it; this witness testified in sub- stance that the water for malting was drawn from a small spring and well ; and that there was never any water from this pond used for the purpose of malting, to his knowledge; I have not known any of it being put into the malt house and used for malting ; my connection with the malt house closed in 1832, when our business was closed ; Mr. Taylor had the sole management afterwards ; I have had nothing to do with it since. 114 BEER TRIAL. Cross-examined: I am plaintiff in one of the suits against Mr. Delavan for this publication. [Witness was here asked the number of suits commenced against Mr. Delavan on account of this publication, and of his knowledge of a concert among the brewers to raise money to prosecute them, but denied any knowledge of such an arrange- ment to raise money.] Did you apply to Robert DuDlap to commence a suit ? I did not put myself in his way. [The question was varied several times, and a similar answer given, when the court directed the witness to answer.] Did you urge or ask Mr. Dunlap to commence a suit ? I think it probable such a conversation passed; I don't recollect it ; I have been in company where he has been urged ; I might have done it in conversation in company; might have asked him such a question. William C. Helse, sworn.—Examination direct: Have known the pond between thirteen and fourteen years; it covered, when I first knew it, from three-fourths to an acre; I have seen carts drawing from it; can't tell where they went with it; went in different directions ; have seen thirty or forty at a time in there swimming; it is fed principally by a stream ; but there are springs that come out from the bank on the northwest cor- ner ; found the barrel always full there, ever since I have known it; people round used to go to the barrel to get water ; there were others besides that; it was as pure water as could be got from any spring or stream that could be found ; I used it in my family when I resided there, for culinary pur- poses—for drinking too, or coffee, or anything of that kind. The pond water I used always for washing. I lived then on the corner of Lark and Washington streets, 50 or a hundred rods from the pond. Lived there about a year and a half, or two years ; there used to be an outlet; never saw a dead cow or horse in the pond; seen plenty on the other side of the road; that was a general depot for them ; it is lower that side than the pond is; never saw dead dogs, or cats or hogs in tha BEER TRIAL. 115 pond ; I have seen the water colored after a storm—riley ; never saw it when it could be said with truth that it was as thick as cream with filth; have seen boys swimming in it in hot weather in summer. Cross-examined.—First went to live in Washington street 14 years ago ; lived there a year and a half; I have seen a little green on the south-west corner of the pond ; never saw it so bad but what cattle would drink it. The court here adjourned to Thursday, April 23. Charles Howe, sicorn.—Examination direct: Never lived nearer the pond than Lydius street, 400 or 500 yards off; had occasion to be at the pond two or three times a day; used to drive through there to water, probably for six, seven or eight years ; don't recollect having seen dead animals in it; I have seen dead horses thrown east of the road, down the hollow there; I know there are springs around the pond, where bar- rels are sunk to get water to use ; always supposed it was fed by springs, because there was nothing but the wash of the hills that could come in; it appears to me I did see a dead dog once on the bank ; I saw dogs, and horses and hogs in the hollow below; never saw one in the water to my knowledge; in com- mon seasons it was as clear as common water; in the fall not quite so healthy—the pond would be lower; it could not run off about that season. Nicholas Rull sworn.— Examination direct: Lived within half a mile of the pond for twelve years ; I pass it frequently; I know of but one spring emptying into it that is running water; it has a barrel into it ; the water in the pond, in some parts of the season, spring and fall, is pretty clear; in dry weather, in summer, it is pretty riley ; it then had a riley, muddy look; don't know that I have seen dead animals in it before 1835 ; previous to 1835, have seen boys bathing in it. Jotham Hancock, sworn.—Examination direct: Have 116 BEER TRIAL. known the pond over 20 years; I live now within five rods of it; the rest of the time within 40 rods. Can't speak of more than one spring; that I know very well. Prior to 1835, was along by the pond almost daily; don't recollect ever seeing dead animals in the pond before that year. The water was stagnant in a dry time in summer; but spring and fall, it was fed by springs and passed off at the outlet; it was generally muddy ; when very low, the hogs, geese, &c, resort there and keep it muddy. Can't say that I ever discovered any green on the surface; if it was, I never took particular notice of it. Since the repairs on Lark street—some three to five years ago—it has been pretty much filled up ; I should call it a mud-hole now. Have seen women washing there in a dry season. Cross-examined.—There was a ditch in State street formerly, that ran down and joined this ravine before it got to the pond ; there was generally a little water running in it, even in a dry season. Certainly, I have often seen hogs wallowing, and geese washing themselves in and about the pond; one family raised a great many geese; I have seen 20 and 50 in a flock, belonging to one family; you can judge as well as I, as to the neatness of that animal. I think the pond has continued to diminish from the time I first knew it, twenty years ago. Edwin Scace, sworn.—Examination direct: Have known the pond 16 or 17 years; when I first knew the pond, I should think when full, it would cover pretty near an acre and a half; when down to the drain, probably an acre or an acre and a quarter; I have seen the pond, some years, look pretty well through the season; other years, in summer, I have seen it thick and muddy—unfit for use; in the spring and fall it gen- erally appeared pretty good; it always was until it got below the drain; then it looked more riley. I considered it good to use, when it was high enough to run through the drain, for cooking, &c. I believe I have drank the water of the pond BEER TRIAL. 117 once or twice. Could not say that I have known of its being used, when it was high enough to run through the drain, for cooking, &c. There were persons drawing it for different places. Think I have seen dead animals in the pond—dead hogs; have seen numbers of dead animals in the hollow on the other side of the road. George Couchman, sworn.—Examination direct: I am a malster; I was in Mr. Taylor's employ, in the season of 1831 and '30; worked for him again in '35, in the malt-house on the hill; got the water for malting, principally, from a well in the malt-house; got none from the pond to my knowledge. John G. White, (brewer and prosecutor,) sworn.—Exam- ination direct: My first acquaintance with the pond was in 1827; continued to know it intimately until 1830, or the spring of 1831; I was there, on an average, once a week perhaps from fall to spring, sometimes oftener; can't say that I ever saw any dead animals in the pond; don't know whether the pond is supplied by springs or not; don't know that I could say it was fit for any purpose; I would not drink it if I could get better. Cross-examined.—Don't know but I am one of the malsters on the hill that has sued Mr. Delavan for this publication; a suit has been entered. I have known the pond since 1831, not as familiary as before; my business has been ever since on the hill; I am still a malster; don't know that I ever examined the pond particularly in summer and fall; never had occasion to go to it in the fall; I think I have seen it when there was not a stream running out of it. Did not get all or the princi- pal part of the water I used in malting and brewing, from the pond, between '30 and '31; quite a small proportion of it; did not get any after '31; not sure that we got any in the spring of 1831; In the fall and winter of '30 we got some; and we might have got it in the spring of '31, but I am not positive. Vrery likely I have seen Mr. Taylor about his malt-house; no 118 BEER TRIAL. question but that I have seen him; I have frequently seen him about the malting season, about the malt-house, Mr. Hancock, re-called.— Cross-examined—by defendant's counsel: I think I have seen the water of the pond carted to the plaintiff's malt-house—wont be positive; I have seen it carted to different malt-houses, and I think I have seen it carted to Mr. Taylor's; I have seen them letting the water run into his malt-house at the north end; I don't know that the water was taken from this pond; I thought they might use better water; I have seen water taken from the pond, which I supposed was going to the malt-houses, which was not bad; I do not say it was suitable for malting; it was water that families would use for washing; don't know what water is fit for malting; it was not fit for drink or food. Direct resumed: I have seen water taken from this pond at different times; and I have seen them running water into Mr. Taylor's malt-house. William Amsdale, sworn—Examination direct: I was frequently at Fidler and Taylor's malt-house on the hill, from 1829 up to and including the fall of '34; it was my business to see how they went on; I was the brewer; am acquainted with that and the business of malting; within the period mentioned I have not seen a great deal of water rode; but I have seen water rode there; I have seen this water very clear, and I have seen it somewhat riled, probably by the rain. Robert Clawson (colored), sworn—Examination direct: For about 12 years I have been in the habit of passing the pond on Lark street, four or five times a week; I have drawn water out of the pond; I moved out to Mr. Van Vechten's farm about 12 years ago, and used to pass this pond going back and forth; I drew water from it about 10 years ago; at that time the water was as clear as you could expect such water as that to be; saw no dead animals in the pond—not one; don't know whether the water was used for washing. BEER TRIAL. 119 Jonathan Sharp, sworn.—Examination direct: I guess I have known the pond on Lark street 16 or 18 years; have drawn water there summer and winter, both; after a heavy rain, it would be muddy; I have drawn it for malt-houses and to wash with, and for other purposes—making mortar; the water looked clear enough, unless after a rain; couldn't say that I ever did see dead animals in the pond; have seen dead dogs and hogs, and horses down on the other side of the bank. Jonathan Gay, sworn.—Examination direct: Have known the big pond about eleven years; lived within ten rods of it part of that time ; there is one spring, where the barrel is put into the ground, on the west side of the pond, in the bank; there are frequently small springs on the side. Before '36, the water in the pond was good ; in the winter, clear and clean, and in the spring and fall, except in freshets, when it was riley; don't recollect seeing any dead animals in it; plenty of them on the other side of the road; have seen plenty of horses drink there; up to '35 do not recollect to have seen the water green. John Anderson, sworn.—Examination direct: Have known the pond 30 years; lived exactly opposite to it on Knox street; I think it is all of 10 or 12 years since it began to fill up; have often been there; have bathed in it; don't recollect any dead animals about it; the water was clear and pure; I have used it in my family for washing; don't know that my folks ever cooked any thing with it; I know of two springs there; helped to sink the barrel for one myself; there was an outlet to it; have seen horses drink out of it. The Defence resumed. William White, sworn.—Examination direct: I am a brewer and malster; I am one of those in whose name a suit has been brought against Mr. Delavan for this publication. I commenced malting and brewing on the hill in the fall of '26 j 120 BEER TRIAL. continued up to the spring of '30, when I moved the brewing apparatus down, after the brewing season ended, to the dock; we continued our malt-house on the hill up to '35. I am a brother of John G. White, and of the other White sworn in this case; we were all in partnership on the hill. I was acquainted with the pond on Lark street from '26 to the spring of '30; after that I was not so much on the hill, and, of course, don't know so much about it. I have seen dead animals in the neighborhood of the pond. Have you seen them on the banks sloping down towards the pond ? Inclined—yes, sir. What kind of animals ? I could not say—a variety of them; don't think I could name any particular animal I had ever seen there. Could you have seen animals if they had been in the water ? I think it never was transparent enough to see any thing that was in it, if it was under the water. Do you know of malting having been done with water out of that pond, in the condition you have described ? Yes, sir, I have done it myself. Have you manufactured beer from that water ? Yes, and malt too. AYas the beer, made of such malt and water, marketable, saleable beer ? Yes, sir, we have sold it. The Court.—It was marketable, saleable beer ? Yes. Do you mean good beer ? Yes. The court here took a recess until three o'clock P. M. Examination continued.—You stated you had seen this water taken from the pond to the plaintiff's malt-house; did you see it going into the malt-house ? I have seen carts fre- quently putting water in there. Did you see if it went into the vessels within? I have seen it go into the steeps; seen carts unloading water there frequently. What was going on in the malt-house, when this water was going into the steep tubs ? They were busy malting when I saw this water rode, I believe. Were they making mortar or plaster at that time ? No, sir. How frequently have you seen Mr. Taylor about there ? I have seen him there frequently—not so frequently, BEER TRIAL. 121 though, as I have seen Mr. Fidler. About what time have you seen water poured in there ? I could not say the particu- lar time; it was during the season of '29 and '30, probably. Two or three seasons ? Yes, I would put it at two seasons— '29 and '30—because in the spring of '30 1 moved from the hill. Dr. Henry Green, sworn.—Examination direct: I have resided in the city twelve years, on the 1st of May; am a practicing physician; am acquainted with the pond on Lark street; whenever I have seen the water there (it is sometimes dried up) it has been dirty, filthy water; when low, it was still more turbid, and it looked very thick; I recollect once seeing a dead hog lying partly on the margin and partly in the water. Barent P. Staats, (late Alderman,) sworn.—Examination direct: I reside in the city. Have known the pond on Lark street since 1814; I don't think it covered over half an acre then; I had occasion to pass it frequently from '21 to '32—a considerable portion of that time as Alms-house physician; I used to be out there sometimes three times a week; it was a dirty pool of water. I have seen dead hogs in it—dead geese; it is a goose pond; I have seen boys swimming in it—and I have seen geese and ducks; I have seen twenty or thirty geese at a time in it. The wash of the bones thrown out from the glue factory would drain off into the pond. Never examined it as minutely as I did in '32, (during the cholera,) when I was health officer; the neighbors supposed it contri- buted to the disease; it was stagnant, filthy water then—in fact, has always been; it was in July or August of that year that I examined it particularly; I thought that it had a bad smell at the time; at that time, I believe, the drain was three or four feet above the bottom of the pond, and, if I recollect, we ordered it to be lowered. AVhenever there was a hard shower, and the pond filled up to the drain, it would run off; it never could run off except after a shower, for there was no 122 BEER TRIAL. supply above that I could perceive; being lower than the hills around, which are clay principally, the water that falls runs down into it, of course. The principal sources of supply are from towards the burying grounds, from Spring street, from State street, and the road ditch from towards Paul Clark's; there may be springs there; I don't say there are not. There is a small stream from a little north of the glue-house, where the collection of bones is; I examined the creek in '32, near Buttermilk falls; I thought it infected then from the slaugh- ter-house, which then stood on the Poor-house lot; at that time the water was bad; in a dry time the water is stagnant, standing in pools. The Prosecution Resumed. George Apply, swom.—Examination direct: I worked in Mr. Taylor's malt-house eight or nine months in '33—from September or October to the latter part of April or May; the water for malting was got, exclusively, from the well in the malt-house; none was carted that season, to my knowledge. Sanford Cobb, sworn.—Examination direct: I am acquainted with Mr. Delavan. AAThat is he estimated to be worth ? I have heard a great many estimates—I should say, safely, from 3 to 8500,000. The testimony, on both sides, here closed, and Mr. AA^heaton summed up on the part of the defendant, when the court adjourned to Saturday, April 25. Mr. Beardsloy closed the defence to the jury, and Messrs. Reynolds and Stevens summed up on the part of the plaintiff. The court, at 6 o'clock, took a recess until 7 o'clock P. M. The Charge. Judge Cushman then addressed the juiy in substance as follows: This action, gentlemen, is brought for two publications in the Evening Journal, in the month of February, 1835. They are alleged by the plaintiff beer trial. 123 to contain libellous matter, and he comes into court and asks, at your hands, a verdict for the injury he may have sustained. I need not go into a defini- tion of a libel further, than to say that it consists in publishing or causing to be published anything calculated and designed to single out an individual, and to present him to the public in a ridiculous or odious light, or which imputes to him bad actions, or which tends to diminish his comforts or respectability. For such a publication an action lies; and the plaintiff is entitled to damages without proof of any injury; the law implying that the act was done maliciously, or with intent to injure. The law affords to every citizen the free use of the press to publish for the information or protection of the public; but it restrains this liberty by requiring an adherence to truth; and without this qualification this liberty cannot be exercised with impunity. But if a defendant is called upon to answer for any published statement, it is a perfect defence to show that the allegations complained of are true. The publications in this ease set forth, having been proved, the defence relied upon is that the published statements are true; and the proof on both side has been chiefly directed to that point. As regards the libel itself, I have looked particularly through it with a view to see what are the sub- stantial charges. And here I would remark, that in order to sustain a justi- fication of a libel, the party defendant must verify the specific charges he has made. If he imputes acts calculated to hold up an individual to public odium, it is not enough that he proves upon the plaintiff other acts of a similar charac- ter. The identical charge made is the one to which he is confined, and which he must sustain substantially. In looking through the declaration, I find that these are substantially the allegations upon which the suit is founded. That so long as six or seven years ago the plaintiff's malt-house was supplied with water from stagnant pools, gutters and ditches; often in such a state as to be green on the sur^ face; that such water for several seasons was collected and deposited in the malt-house for malting; that no attention was ever paid to cleanliness; that the water was often taken from puddles in which were dead animals; that yrhen the water was low in the pools, holes were sometimes made in which a pail was sunk to get the water of which the malt was made; and that the sides of the pail sometimes came in contact with dead animals in a state of putridity; that water was carried to the malt-house which was nearly as thick as cream with filth; that the plaintiff relies on water taken from such places occasionally; that seven hogsheads were used in a steep-tub; and that ten or twelve inches of filth will settle on the bottom from that quantity of water. And the declaration sets forth that the defendant meant to charge that impure, dirty and filthy water, taken from stagnant pools, gutters and ditches, had, for years, been carried to the malt-house of the plaintiff; and that he had been guilty of using that water in preparing barley for malt. The counsel here called on the court to state to the jury to what extent the defendant is bound to go to make out his justification. The defendant having charged that water was taken from pools, gutters and ditches, the point has been raised whether, if he adduces proof only of water having been taken from pools, it is a justification. Gentlemen, it would be a justifies ■ tion, provided the quality of the water, as to foulness, was such as to meet fully the description given of it in the publication in question. If the water is proved to be of that character, then—whether taken from one pool or two - whether from ditches or gutters—would make no difference; because, sub- stantially, the entire allegation that is of any importance would be proved. So, as regards the hole charged to have been made, it is no importance 124 BEER trial. whether it was made through the ice or into the ground, particularly as the libel does not state which. The minutiae of the description are not material. If the allegations made, be all substantially proved, the defence is sustained without the proof of. immaterial circumstances in the statement. At the same time, all the allegations as to the offensive character of the water that was used, must be made out by the defendant to sustain his defence. It is for you to say, upon the evidence adduced, whether the defendant has proved the allegations made in the publications on which the declaration is founded. I shall not detain you by canvassing, particularly, the testi- mony in relation to the water from the Poor-house creek. It seems from the description given of the map, that there are two ravines meeting below the bridge. The northern ravine receives the wash of the burying grounds principally, and of certain establishments of a character to make the water foul. The southern ravine comes from near Wilson's slaughter-house ; and these two form the junction below the bridge. Of course, as regards any evidence of water taken above the bridge in either ravine, (there being no communication above, between the waters of the two,) nothing in the one could affect the other. The proof is, that the principal part of water taken from the creek was taken above the bridge, from the south ravine; some of •the witnesses took it from below. But where the testimony is confined to the taking of the water from the creek, without reference to either branch, it will be for you to say, whether the proof of the quality of the water sus- tains all the charges made by the defendant in the publications in question, as to the degree of its impurity. Your attention, then, will be more particularly drawn to the state of what is called the big pond or pool. In relation to this, you perceive a very marked difference between the evidence on the part of the defendant and that on the part of the plaintiff. The defendant's witnesses in regard to the condition of that pool and the taking of water there, have been named to you, and elaborate and ingenious comments have been made by the coun- sel upon this branch of the evidence. I, however, deem it proper to recapitulate a portion of the testimony, and to make some remarks as to its general character. The publication being proved, the defendant calls witnesses for the pur- pose of showing that the publication is true, by proof that the water of the big pond, as it has been termed, was of the offensive character in every sub- stantial particular described in the publications. That point the defendant is bound to establish in order to maintain his defence; and it is for the jury to say whether in this he has succeeded. Tho witnesses called have been those who have lived in the neighborhood, or in the immediate vicinity of the pond; or who, residing in the city, have more or less frequently passed it; and, with greater or less opportunity, minutely observed the state of the pool and the drawingof the water. First, as regards the character of the water, the defendant has introduced Mr. Coulson, Judge Savage and others—some 16 or IS in all. Mr. Coulson's tes- timony is distinct as to the offensive character of the water. His opportunities of observing he has stated to you. He had the glue factory mentioned. He described the water as what he called rotten water. In the fall, he said, the water in the pool was always bad and in a putrid state in warm weather. That during tho whole year it was bad, except after showers. That the water would get green; and that putrid animals would be floating in it. That he has seen dogs and cats and hogs there; and a dead horse on the rising ground in the vicinity of it. That is his general description of it. Judge Savago states that ho was in the habit of riding by this pond for several years prior to 1835. His statement is, that the water was always dirty—never BEER TRIAL. 125 saw it otherwise; that it was not in a condition to be used for food or drink; and that his horse refused to drink there. That he has seen dead animals there—dogs, hogs and cats, as Mr. Coulson had represented; and that he had observed this for several years, between 1827 and 1835. That is his representation of the condition of the pool. I have no desire to go through and state what each witness has said; but substantially each of the wit- nesses, Mr. Green, Mr. Middleton, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Wasson, Mr. Fassett, Mr. Lansing, Mr. Keith, Mr. Harvey, Mr. Ten Eyck, Mr. Clark, Mr. White and Mr. Staats, have stated that they have noticed there the dead animals mentioned, such as dogs, cats, hogs, and agree in the general description of the character of the water, slightly varying the language. Some describe it as stagnant, green, very dirty; others as green and nasty; green and filthy. Very impure, always (is Mr. Fassetfs) at all seasons. That of Keith is, '' pretty bad always." Harvey says, stagnant, dirty. Ten Eyck says, there was a good deal of stagnant water in the pool; has seen it very green ; has seen dead animals there. Mr. Clark says, yellow, riley and muddy. Dr. Green says, dirty and filthy. Dr. Staats says, it was a dirty pool; when low, more thick and muddy. These are the general descriptions given by the defendant s witnesses of the water in the pool. Added to this you have the fact of the construction of Lark street across the ravine; thus, making a dam to catch the water that falls, or that comes from the melting of the snow during the year. You have heard the position of the ground described, and the testimony in relation to the question, whether the pond is supplied with springs, of the manner in which it is visited by travelers with their teams—by the hogs that were about, of the fact in relation to its being the receptacle of the filthy matter above ground washing into it—a deposi- tory for dead animals—a place where they were sometimes drowned. As to the quantity of water in the pond, the estimates vary. Some say a half acre ; others, an acre and a half. Originally, it appears to have been a very deep pool; but subsequently to have filled up until now, it would seem to be en- tirely filled. After the street was made, a sewer was formed to carry ofi the water after rising to a certain height. Tho water passed off there in great freshets; and you have heard the testimony as to its passing off at other times. The principal witness relied upon by the defendant to prove, particularly, the facts charged as to the use of the water, and whose testimony is more minute than that of others, is Chas. W. Harvey. You have heard his testi- mony fully commented on. It will be for you to say whether he has not described the water taken to the malt-house in all the terms mentioned in the publications. The particular term "as thick as cream," has been pre- sented and urged as the language of the libel. It is not precisely that. The term cream is used; but the precise language is, " nearly as thick as cream;" and that is the language the defendant is bound to meet. The representation is, that water was carried to the malt-house nearly as thick as cream with fifth. The fact that water of this description was carried there, is to be made out in order to sustain the defence. You are then to look at the testimony as regards the taking of this water from this pool; (and Harvey testifies as to the fifteen or twenty pools,) and say whether its character, as described by Harvey and the other witnesses, presents to your minds, substantially, the same character of water as that described in the published statement. Harvey states that the water, where he obtained it, was at times offensive; that it made him almost sick; that he obtained it in winter and in the fall; that for three or four years he was thus employed at times ; assisting his brother-in-law; that he went with the wagon to the malt- house where it was poured into the tub. Other witnesses state the fact, that 126 BEER TRIAL. water wa3 carried from this pool to the malt-house; this witness more par- ticularly describes the time. Mr. White and some of the plaintiff's witnesses testify that this water was taken to the malt-house, and during malting season. One of the witnesses states that he ran into the kiln to warm him- self while the water was running in. The defendant relies on this testi- mony as evidence that water was taken from this pool and other places of the description set forth in the paper on which the trial is brought. As to the putridity of the animals, the substance of the allegation is, that the water was sometimes taken from beside a dead body in a state of putridity. Harvey states that after cutting holes in the ice and dipping up the water, the animals would be drawn to the hole, and would eome pretty near getting into his pail; and that when thrust off they would come up again. You are to judge whether this would be a natural movement, sup- posing the water to contain dead animals; whether the dipping of water from a hole in the ice would have a tendency to cause floating matter to be attracted to the hole; whether, if floating, the animals were probably in a putrid state. These are matters which you will weigh and decide for your- selves. The plaintiff has called a number of witnesses to show that such is not the character of the water; and a larger number, it has been said, have been sworn on the part of the plaintiff than on the part of the defendant. The number of witnesses, gentlemen, is never to be the governing consideration in such a case. You are to look at the character of the witnesses for intelli- gence and integrity; how far they may be under the influence of bias or interest; the relation in which they stand, and their opportunities of obser- vation. Hence the value of an open examination; that the candor of a witness may be noted, the manner in which he testifies, and his willingness to tell the whole truth. While, therefore, you are not to lay out of view the number of witnesses, you are to look to the circumstances mentioned rather than to the number, to decide upon the weight which is to be given to the evidence adduced. Mr. Howard is called to meet this evidence. He was a co-partner of the plaintiff down to '32. You have heard his examination, direct and cross; and it is for you to say what is the bearing of that testimony upon the character of the water. His general representation is, that this was water that he did not intend to use. His effort was to get other water; and you have heard the testimony as to the preparations made with that view; the syphon, the arrangement with McXab, the pipes for the collection of rain water. He states that there was some water drawn in '23 from a distance. He, however, testifies that he did not know of any water being drawn from this pool. The most he has said that would indicate that he understood it to be so, is, that he had heard that some trifle had been brought, but did not know it to be the fact. Ward's testimony is a general negative, as regards his knowledge of, or direction concerning, getting water from the pool. The testimony of Mr. Hclse, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Watson, Mr. Rull, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Scace, Mr. Toomay, Mr. Hood, Mr. Shufelt, Mr. Couchman, Mr. White, Mr. Haswell, Mr. Hilton, Mr. Clawson, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Bradt, Mr. Waugh, and Mr. Anderson, has been adduced, principally bearing on this subject. These, with three or four exceptions, state that they have had opportunities of observing, (some of them having lived just in the vicinity,) and afBrm, generally, that they have never seen any dead animals in the pond. Scace says he has seen dead hogs there ; others have seen none. Mr. White, I think, states that he has seen them there. Some of them state that they have drank the water; one or two state they have used the water. Plaintiff's counse' insisted that there were five. BEER TRIAL. 127 The Court.—I mean for family use. There are not five that state they used it, except for washing. Plaintiff's counsel named five or six. The Court.—I do not find it so on my minutes. I have condensed the testimony to ascertain the facts as regards the general character of the water. You, gentlemen, will recall and scrutinize the testimony given, and regard the opportunities of the witnesses for observation, and their descrip- tions of the water. One of them, Mr. Scace, spoke of it as pretty good water in the spring and fall; and several of them, as clear; especially in the spring. Several say they would not use it, except in case of extremity. Others say they have seen it taken away in a tea-kettle, and in pails, and for washing. Several have taken it for washing. Cattle drink there; and travelers very frequently drive in to water. Now, gentlemen, you are to take all this testimony, give it its full weight and consideration, and exer- cise your own good sense in relation to it. There is also the further evidence of several witnesses who swear there are springs there. One speaks of three, others of two; some speak of them as living springs. Others say there was water enough flowing from one spring to fill an inch bore. Some testify that barrels were sunk there. One witness places it as high on the bank as ten feet above the surface of the pond. The pond is described as having a bottom of clay. You are to say, looking at all the testimony as to the condition of the pond in drought and in freshet, whether the water was supplied by springs in whole or in part during the period when used; or whether by the water that falls. For if the pool was supplied by springs, and water was constantly running from it, the quality of the water would be very different from what it would be in the other case. The witnesses testify that in dry weather the water in the pond falls below the drain. More of the plaintiff s witnesses speak of the continuance of the flow of water, and of the supply from the ravines, than of those on the other side. You are to ascertain the character of the water from the testimony, whether supplied from springs below or from water above ground. If the water con- tained the bodies of dead animals, left there to decompose, you are to judge what effect it would have upon its quality, either standing or running off. And you must find it to be of the character set forth in the libel to sustain the defence. The testimony of Harvey, (who states the strong points as to the charac- ter of the water on which the defendant relies,) the plaintiff says should not be credited. The testimony insisted on as discrediting Harvey, is that of Mr. Ryckman and Dr. Hinckley; and Judge C. here went into an examina- tion and comparison of the testimony of these witnesses and that of Dr. Harvey; pointing out wherein they differed or appeared to differ—leaving it to the jury to say what weight was to be given to the testimony of the latter in view of the fact that he was corroborated as to many of the main facts to which he testified by other witnesses, who must be discredited if he was. As to the point whether the plaintiff was cognizant of the fact, that water of the description charged, was used at his brewery in malting; the Judge charged that the allegation, substantially, was, that the plaintiff, by him- self or his agent, used such water in making malt; and that the defendant must show enough to prove the plaintiff cognizant of the fact that it was so used. It is not necessary (said the Judge) to prove that he saw the water put there, or directed it to be put there. You are to have testimony that satisfies you that the plaintiff knew that this water was used in malting. You are to look to the fact of the plaintiff's presence there, and his oppor- tunities of knowing what was going on. It appears that the plaintiff was 128 BEER TRIAL. not as much at the malt-house as his partner. Mr. Coulson says he had seen him about the malt-house; Mr. White had seen him there; and Mr. Couch- man had seen him there, he thinks, oftener than his partner, Mr. Fidler. This is the testimony relied upon by the defendant to satisfy you that the plaintiff k«cw what quality of water was used in preparing malt, and whence it was procured. The plaintiff also urges that the fact is undeniable, that pure air and pure water are indispensable in making good malt as well as good beer; and that this should be regarded in weighing the evidence as to the fact of the use of foul water and of his knowledge of it. You have heard the testimony on this point and the comments upon it. The witnesses on the part of the plaintiff, with one exception upon this point, have testified that pure water and pure air are indispensable. One of the witnesses, Mr. White, used it to make malt and beer from the necessity of the case. From the evidence the plain- tiff urges the improbability of the use of foul water with his knowledge, as the effect would be to injure his malt. The testimony, gentlemen, is too voluminous to justify me in going through it all with minuteness; and the hour admonishes me that I should bring my remarks to a close. The question for you to decide is one of fact; and you are carefully to weigh and compare all the evidence when you retire to deliberate. The plaintiff alleges that the publications in question are calcu- lated to do him great injury. The proof is, that the defendant is a man of large wealth. These are facts proper to be urged in reference to the amount of damages to be given by your verdict. It is also the rule, when the defen- dant in pleading, gives notice that he will justify the libel by showing it to be true; that this recharging the libel, if the defence fails, is an aggrava- tion of the injury, and a ground for giving enhanced damages. In every libellous publication the law implies that it was done with malice; and the plaintiff is not bound to show an injury in fact sustained, to entitle him to a recovery of damages. A reiteration of the libel in these pleadings if the defence fails, is a deliberate repetition of the injury, and justifies the claim for a greater amouut in damages. Upon the whole proof, you, gentlemen, are to say whether the defence has been made out. If you are satisfied that it has, then the defendant will be entitled to your verdict; for any citizen is at liberty to publish truth, although it may injuriously affect his neighbor; and especially should this right be sustained, when the facts published, if true, ought to be known to the community at large. If the fact published are proved true, the law presumes the motive good. If these publications are false, a deep injury has been inflicted upon the plaintiff in his business and his character; and the pecuniary situation of the defendant should be taken into consideration in deciding upon the amount of your verdict. In view of all the testimony in this case, you will make up your verdict; and 1 am persuaded that in coming to the result you will be guided by the single purpose of awarding justice between these parties. The jury retired at 9 o'clock P. M.; and after a consultation of about an hour agreed upon a verdict, which (under the previous direction of the court) was sealed up, and handed in on Monday. The verdict was FOR THE DEFENDANT, WITH COSTS. No. 9. ---------♦-♦---------■ LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL COVENANT. ----------~o«o~---------- South Ballston, May, 1864. To Mrs. General James Taylor, President of the Woman's National Covenant, Washington, D. C. Madam : The whole country is responding to the patriotic design in forming the " Woman's National Covenant." In j'our admirable address, as president of the national organization, you state that in 1770, ladies occupying the highest social position signed a pledge to abstain from tea, as an example, and from patriotism. The present movement is more particularly confined to dress. Could the " Wo- man's National Covenant" now step forth on the platform of entire abstinence from all that can intoxicate, and add it to its pledge, and recommend to all classes of both sexes to adopt and practice it, can there be any doubt that a vast number would comply, and that mani- fest benefits to them and the country would result, in an economical, moral and religious point of view ? My especial object in addressing you is to call your attention to some extracts, given below, from an address of the Rt. Rev'd Alonzo Potter, D. D., LL. D,, Bishop of Pennsylvania, as applicable to the question to which I have taken the liberty to call your attention; the perusal of which may influence your mind to consider this subject, and perhaps lead you to the decision that it may be an act of high Christian duty as well as lofty patriotism in pledging to abstain from 130 woman's national covenant. all alcoholic drinks, whether pure or adulterated, imported or domes- tic, and by precept and example, kindly urging all others to do the same. I remain, Madam, with great respect, Your obedient serv't, EDWARD C. DELAY AN. P. S.—The chapter on CnARiTr, by the great English poet, Cow- per, in which he treats of the World's Commerce, is deeply interest- ing and instructive. (See extract at the close.) ON THE DRINKING USAGES OF SOCIETY. By Alonzo Potter, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. "But what is the cause of moderate or temperate drinking? Is it the force of natural appetite ? No. Nine-tenths of those who use alcoholic stimulants, do it, in the first instance, "and often for a long time, not from appetite, but from deference to custom or fashion. Usage has associated intoxicating drinks with good fellowship — with offices of hospitality and friendship. However false and dangerous such an association may be, it is not surprising that, when once esta- blished, it continually gathers strength; with some through engen- dered appetite, with others through sordid interest. It is in this way that drinking usage: have become incorporated with every pursuit in life, with the tastes and habits of every grade and class. In the din- ing room of the affluent, in the public room of the hotel, in every place of refreshment, in the social gatherings of the poor, in the harvest field and in the workshop, alcoholic liquor was at one time deemed essential. Too often it is deemed so still. Many a host and employer, many a young companion, shrinks even now from the idea of exchanging the kind offices of life without the aid of intoxicating liquors, as he would shrink from some sore offence against taste and propriety. Not to put the cup to your neighbor's lip is, in one word, to sin against that most absolute of earthly sovereigns, FAsniox. Here, then, lies the gist of the whole difficulty. Fashion propa- gates itself downward. Established and upheld by the more refined and opulent, it is soon caught up by those in less conspicuous walks. It thus spreads itself over the whole face of society, and, becoming woman's national covenant. 13! allied with other principles, is planted deep in the habits and associ- ations of a people. It is pre-eminently so with drinking usages. Immemorial custom; the example of those whose education or position gives them a commanding sway over the opinions of others ; appetite with them who have drunk till what was once but compliance with usage is n*w an imperious craving ; the interest of many who thrive by the traffic in intoxicating drinks, or by the follies into which they betray men — here are causes which so fortify and strengthen our drinking usages, that they seem to defy all change. But let us not despair. We address those who are willing to think, and are accus- tomed to bring every question to the stern test of utility and duty. To these, then, we appeal. Drinking usages are the chief cause of intemperance; and these de- rive their force and authority, in the first instance, wholly from those who give law to fashion. Let this be considered. Do you ask for the treacherous guide, who, with winning smiles and honied accents, leads men forward from one degree of indulgence to another, till they are besotted and lost ? Seek him not in the purlieus of the low grog- shop; seek him not in any scenes of coarse and vulgar revelry. He is to be found where they meet who are the observed of all observers. There, in the abodes of the rich and admired; there, amidst all the enchantments of luxury and elegance; where friend pledges friend; where wine is invoked to lend new animation to gaiety, and impart new brilliancy to wit; in the sparkling glass, which is raised even by the hand of beautiful and lovely women,— there is the most danger- ous decoy. Can that be unsafe which is thus associated with all that is fair and graceful in woman, with all that is attractive and bril- liant in man ? Must not that be proper which has the deliberate and time-honored sanction of those who stand before the world as the 'glass of fashion,' and ' rose of the fair state ?' Thus reason the great proportion of men. They are looking con- tinually to those who, in their estimation, are more favored of for- tune, or more accomplished in mind and manners than themselves. We do not regulate our watches more carefully or more universally by the town-clock, than do nine tenths of mankind take their tone from the residue who occupy places towards which all are struggling. Let the responsibility of these drinking usages be put, then, where 132 woman's national covenant. it justly belongs. When you visit, on some errand of mercy, the abodes of the poor and afflicted; when you look in on some home which has been made dark by drunkenness, where hearts are desolate and hearths are cold; where want is breaking in as an armed man; where the wife is heart-broken or debased, and children are fast be- coming demoralized,— friends ! would you connect effect with cause, and trace this hideous monster back to its true parent, let your thoughts fly away to some abode of wealth and refinement where conviviality reigns; where, amidst joyous greetings and friendly pro- testations, and merry shouts the flowing bowl goes round, and there you will see that which is sure to make drinking everywhere attract- ive, and cannot fail to make drunkenness common. Would we settle our account, then, with the drinking usages of the refined and respectable ? We must hold them answerable for main- taining corresponding usages in other classes of society; and we must hold them answerable, further, for the frightful amount of intemper- ance which results from those usages. We must hold them account- able for all the sin, and all the unhappiness, and all the pinching poverty, and all the nefarious crimes to which intemperance gives rise. So long as these usages maintain their place among the respect- able, so long will drinking and drunkenness abound through all grades and conditions of life. Neither the power of Law aimed at the Traffic in liquors, nor the force of Argument addressed to the understandings and consciences of the many, will ever prevail to cast out the fiend Drunkenness, so long as they who are esteemed the favored few, uphold with unyielding hand, the practice of drinking. Hence the question, whether this monster evil shall be abated, re- solves itself always into another question. Will the educated, the wealthy, the respectable, persist in sustaining the usages which pro- duce itl Let them resolve that these Usages shall no longer have their countenance, and their insidious power is broken. Let them resolve that, wherever they go, the empty wine glass shall proclaim their silent protest; and Fashion, which now commands us to drink, shall soon command us with all potential voice, to abstain. When Paul appeared before the licentious Felix, he reasoned with him on Temperance. It is the only appeal I desire to make. I might invoke your passions or your prejudices; but they are unworthy in- woman's national covenant. 133 struments, which he will be slow to use who respects himself; and they are instruments which generally recoil with violence on the man that employs them. There is enough in this cause to approve itself to the highest reason and to the most upright conscience. Let us not be weary, then, in calling them to our aid. If we are earnest, and yet patient; if we speak the truth in love, and yet speak it with all per- severance and faithfulness, it must at length prevail. But few years have passed since some of us who are now ardent in this good work, were as ignorant or sceptical as those we are most anxious to convince. We then thought ourselves conscientious in our doubts, or even in our opposition. Let our charity be broad enough to concede to those who are not yet with us, the same generous construction of motives which we then claimed for ourselves. And let us resolve that, if this noble cause be not advanced, it shall be through no fault of ours; that our zeal and our discretion shall go hand in hand; and that fervent prayer to God shall join with stern and indomitable effort to secure for it a triumph alike peaceful and permanent. It was a glorious consciousness which enabled St. Paul, when about to take leave of those amongst whom he had gone preaching the king- dom of God, to say, " I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men." May this consciousness be ours, in re- spect, at least, to the drunkards! May not one drop of the blood of their ruined souls be found at last spotting our garments! Are we ministers of Christ ? Are we servants and followers of Him who taught that it is more blessed to give than to receive ? Let us see to it that no blood-guiltiness attaches to us here. We can take a course which will embolden us to challenge the closest inspection of our influence; which will enable us to enter without fear, on this ground at least, the presence of our Judge. May no false scruples, then, no 'fear of man which bringeth a snare,' no spirit of self-indulgence, no unreasoning prejudice, deter us from doing that over which we cannot fail to rejoice when we come to stand before the Son of Man !" 12 134 WOMAN'S NATIONAL COVENANT. WESTMINSTER REVIEW, LONDON, ETC. This influential Review, in 1855, defended the moderate use of al- cohol in health, as necessary, indeed, as food for the body. Prof. You- mans, and others, of the United States, and learned writers in Great Britain, exposed the fallacy of this position. Now, in 18G0, this same Journal magnanimously acknowledges that recent scientific French investigators of the highest rank, have exploded this doctrine, asserting that alcohol is a poison, and always pernicious as a beverage, in health. By the use of alcohol, they say, ' The pathological alterations are very vivid inflammation of the mu- cous membrane of the stomach." " Very lately," says Dr. James McCulloch, of Scotland, " Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin and Duroy, in France, and Dr. Edward Smith, LL. B., F. R. S., in London, have published a number of carefully conducted experiments, and most important discoveries, proving that alcohol undergoes no change in the body, it being expelled un- changed by the lungs, skin and kidneys ;" and that, in the words of Dr. Smith, " it should be prescribed medicinally as carefully as any other poisonous agent." The Jiritish Medical Journal, lately, in a leader, appears willing to accept the improved scientific status quo as touching alcohol. It says, " The subject of the use of alcohol is daily becoming one of more importance. The question of its influence on the body in health is being daily canvassed by the chemist and physiologist; and, as far as their lights reach, it would seem that not only is alcohol not of service to the body, but is actually injurious." " That alcohol is poison, is an admitted fact."—Mev. Dr. E. Nott, President of Union College. That alcohol, Avhether found in rum, brandy or wine, is "poison," is conceded on all hands. It is classed among poisons, because, says a learned writer, it is one of "those substances which are known by physicians as capable of altering or destroying, in a ma- jority of cases, some of the functions necessary to life."—Dr. Ro- meyn Beck's Medical Jurisprudence. The ancient Greeks, instead of saying "the man is drunk," were in the habit of saying " the man is poisoned." Our word intoxica- tion is derived from the Greek word toxicon, which signifies poison. That eminent French physician, Broussais, about fifty years since discovered that, by the use of alcoholic wine, a diseased state of the stomach was produced. The late eminent physician, Dr. Sewall,of AYashington, after deep study and numerous dissections, prepared a drawing of the moderate drinker's stomach, showing conclusively that such drinking brought on an incipient disease of the stomach, and if continued would induce diseases of various kinds, and ulti mately, in many cases, death by delirium tremens. Those celebrated woman's national covenant. 135 anatomists, Drs. Warren, Mott and Horner, of this country, at the time sustained Dr. Sewall in his position; God, the highest of all authorities, sa3rs " wine (intoxicating) wine is a mocker," not much, or little, but, "it is a mocker." No one can drink this mocker in health without being mocked by it, in the degree he permits himself to use it. The London Times says wine '(alluding to weak French wine) is less poisonous than gin. REV. DR. E. NOTT, LL. D. {President of Union College), ON THE ADULTERATION OF LIQUORS. "Wine indeed, 'falsely so called,' we have in abundance, but names do not alter the nature of things. The extract of logwood is not less the extract of logwood, nor is the sugar of lead less the sugar of lead, because combined with New England rum, Western whisky, sour beer, or even Newark cider put up in wine casks, stamped Port, Champagne or Madeira, and sold under the imposing sanction of the collector's purchased certificate, passed from hand to hand, and perhaps transmitted from father to son, to give the color of honesty to cool, calculating, heartless imposition. "0! it was not from the vineyards of any distant grape-bearing country, that those disguised poisons, sent abroad to corrupt and curse the country, were derived. On the contrary, the ingredients of which they are composed were collected and mingled, and their color and flavor imparted, in some of those garrets above, or caverns beneath, the observation of men; caverns fitly called ' hells,' where, in our larger cities, fraud undisguised finds protection, and whole- sale deeds of darkness are securely and systematically performed. " I do not say this on my own authority. I had a friend who had been himself a wine dealer; and having read the startling statements made in public in relation to the brewing of wines and the adultera- tion of liquors generally, I inquired of that friend as to the verity of those statements. His reply was: 'God forgive what has passed in my own cellar, but the statements made are true, true, I assure you.' " That friend has since gone to his last account, as have doubtless many of those whose days on earth were shortened by the poisons he dispensed. But I still remember, and shall long remember, both the terms and tone of that laconic answer. " Another friend informed me that the executor of a wine dealer, in a city named, assured him that in the inventory of articles for the manufacture of wine found in the cellar of that dealer, and the value of which amounted to many thousand dollars, there was not one dollar for the juice of the grape! And still another friend informed me, that in examining, as an assignee, the papers of a house in that city which dealt in wines, and which had stopped payment, he found evidence of the purchase during the preceding year, of hundreds of 136 woman's national covenant. casks of cider, but none of wine. And yet it was not cider, but ' wine,' which had been supposed to have been dealt out by that house to its confiding customers." Since the foregoing was forwarded to the printer, I have received the N. Y. Observer of June 2d. I make the following extract: " The Ladies' Covenant.—A friend in Boston sends me a letter by Mr. Everett to Mrs. Quincy, in which the eloquent orator encour- ages the ladies to go onward with their retrenchment and economy, that they may be able to do more for the country. My Boston friend begs me to say a few words to help on the movement. Others have asked me how to discriminate between foreign and domestic goods; and this leads me to the only point worth coming to: and that is the duty of avoiding extravagance. Mr. Everett hits the nail on the head when he saj^s: ' A reform is needed, on the part of both sexes, and in many things besides foreign luxury. Extravagance in the general style of living, in building, furniture, equipage, entertainment, amusements, hotels, watering places,— extravagance often as tasteless as it is otherwise reprehensible,—is growing upon us, and consuming, worse than unpro- ductively, the substance of the country. The waste at a fashionable private entertainment would support three or four men in the ranks of the army for a twelvemonth, and provide for the relief and comfort of a hundred wounded soldiers in a hospital.' The Observer states: " This is the doctrine. It is of little account for the women to re- trench unless the men hold up, and vice versa. It is of little account to economize in foreign goods and waste money on domestic; and vice versa. Dress is not the only or chief matter about which we are to be frugal now. It is wise and patriotic to husband all our re- sources, and bring what we have, and what we can save, and lay ic on the altar of God and the country." Permit me to add: the patriotic ladies who have organized the "National Covenant " have sot a ball in motion, which, I hope and believe, will roll on for good, until its influence shall be felt in every family, and by ever}' individual having responsibility, whether in the dwellings of the lowly or wealthy, and until a judicious eco- nomy is adopted by all classes, by which alone, as I fear, can the national honor in its credit be finally established and repudiation pre- vented. The war ended, the Union restored, we shall soon have a population of thirty-five millions of people. One cent saved a day by each in retrenchment amounts in a year to..........$124,750,000 Two cents do do do 249,500,000 Three cents do do do 374,250,000 Four cents do do do 499,000,000 Five cents do do do 023,750,000 E. C D. woman's national covenant. EXTRACT FROM COWPER'S essay on charity. "Again—the hand of commerce was design'd T' associate all the branches of mankind; And if a boundless plenty be the robe, Trade is the golden girdle of the globe. Wise to promote whatever end he means, God opens fruitful nature's various scenes: Each climate needs what other climes produce, And offers something to the gen'ral use; No land but listens to the common call, And in return receives supply from all. This genial intercourse, and mutual aid, Cheers what were else a universal shade, Calls nature from her ivy-mantled den, And softens human rock-work into men. Ingenious Art, with her expressive face, Steps forth to fashion and reline the race; Not only fills necessity's demand, But overcharges her capacious hand: Capricious taste itself can crave no more Than the supplies from her abounding store: She strikes out all that luxury can ask, And gains new vigour at her endless task. Her's is the spacious arch, the shapely spire, The painter's pencil, and the poets lyre; From her the canvass borrows light and shade, And verse, more lasting, hues that never fade. She guides the finger o'er the dancing keys, And gives difficulty all the grace of ease, And pours a torrent of sweet notes around, Fast as the thirsting ear can drink the sound. These are the gifts of Art, and Art thrives most Where Commerce has enriched the busy coast. He catches all improvements in his flight, Spreads foreign wonders in his country's sight. Imports what others have invented well, And stirs his own to match them, or excel. 'Tis thus reciprocating, each with each, Alternately the nations learn and teach; While Providence enjoins to ev'ry soul A union with the vast terraqueous whole. Heav'n speed the canvass, gallantly unfurl'd To furnish and accommodate a world, To give the pole the produce of the sun, And knit th' unsocial climates into one.— Soft airs and gentle heavings of the wave Impel the fleet, whose errand is to save, To succour wasted regions, and replace The smile of Opulence in Sorrow's face.— Let nothing adverse, nothing unforseen, Impede the bark, that ploughs the deep serene, Charg'd with a freight, transcending in its worth The gems of India, Nature's rarest birth, 138 woman's national covenant. That flies, like Gabriel on his Lord's commands, A herald of God's love to pagan lands.* But ah ! what wish can prosper, or what pray'r, For merchants rich in cargoes of despair, Who drive a loathsome traffick, gauge, and span, And buy the muscles and the bones of man? The tender ties of father, husband, friend, All bonds of nature in that moment end; And each endures, while yet he draws his breath, A stroke as fatal as the scythe of death. The sable warrior, f ran tick with regret Of her he loves, and never can forget, Loses in tears the far-receding shore, But not the thought, that they must meet no more; Deprived of her and freedom at a blow, What has he left, that he can yet forego? Yes, to deep sadness sullenly resign'd, He feels his body's bondage in his mind; Puts off his gen'rous nature; and, to suit His manners with his fate, puts on the brute. 0 most degrading of all ills, that wait On man, a mourner in his best estate ! All other sorrows Virtue may endure, And find submission more than half a cure, Grief is itself a med'eine, and bestow'd T' improve the fortitude that bears the load, To teach the wand'rer as his woes increase, The path of Wisdom, all whose paths are peace; But slav'ry !—Virtue dreads it as her grave : Patience itself is meanness in a slave ; Or if the will and sov'reignty of God Bid suffer it awhile, aDd kiss the rod, Wait for the dawning of a brighter day, And snap the chain the moment when you may. Nature imprints upon whate'er we see, That has a heart and life in it, Be free : The beasts are charter'd — neither age nor force Can quell the love of freedom in a horse: ♦The " Ladies Covenant" pledge against the use of foreign productions of certain descriptions and under certain circumstances.— Foreign nations exchange their com- modities for ours, and the exchange is for mutual benefit; let our retrenchments be dictated by the most expansive benevolence, let us consider also the nations of the earth as belonging to one great community, and mutually dependent on each other. The laborers abroad (they are our friends and deeply sympathise with us in our present great struggle,) who toil at the loom, the forge, and bobbin, to prepare for us those commodities we want and they can make cheaper than wo can, and let us in return pay them iu our surplus of food, &c, fee, which we can produce cheaper than they can. Should foreign nations combine against us, and agree to look elsewhere for our surplus food, what would be the consequence ? that surplus would be almost without value, and so reduce the price of what would be needed for our own wants, that labor would not be rewarded, and universal stagnation, and panic would pervade the country, until time could remedy the evil, by an entire change in the application of labor. Let us put our faces like a flint, against all use of every article whether foreign or domestic injurious in itself, and without distinction between foreign and domestic, retrench in every proper way to meet the necessities of our country, now in its day of trial, and great peril. woman's national covenant. 139 He breaks the cord, that held him at the rack; And conscious of an unencumber'd back, Snuffs up the morning air, forgets the rein; Loose fly his forelock and his ample mane; Responsive to the distant neigh he neighs; Nor stops till, overleaping all delays, He finds the pasture where his fellows graze. Canst thou and honour'd with a Christian name, Buy what is woman born, and feel no shame; Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead Expedience as a warrant for the deed? So may the wolf, whom famine has made bold To quit the forest and invade the fold: So may the ruffian, who with ghostly glide, Dagger in hand steals close to your bedside; Not he, but his emergence, forc'd the door, He found it inconvenient to be poor. Has God then giv'n its sweetness to the cane, Unless his laws be trampled on—in vain? Built a brave world, which cannot yet subsist, Unless his right to rule it be dismiss'd? Impudent blasphemy ! So Folly pleads, And Av'rice being judge, with ease succeeds."* *The traffic in intoxicating drink, as a beverage, always has been, and still maybe, more disastrous to the human family in its wide spread influences Mid results, than the slave trade or slavery The Rum Dealer not only holds the body of his victim in cruel bondage, but crushes out his heart — Slavery chains the body, but leaves the gates of Heaven wide open for the soul of the slave to enter — even tho' his body is striped all over, by the thonged lash of his task-master. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DANGERS ARISING FROM RAIL ROAD TRAVEL AND THE LIQUOR TRADE, ETC., ETC. The English railways in 1883 covered 8,568 miles of rails and conveyed nearly a hundred and seventy-four millions of passengers, besides an enormous quantity of coal, cattle, &c. The money paid by passengers was £12,262,416; for goods traffic, £13,950,406—a total of £26,212,822. But in the same period the English people (assigning to them two-thirds of the expenditure of the United Kingdom) paid for intoxi- cating liquors upwards of fifty millions sterling—twice as much as the total receipts of all the railway companies—and then did a far more foolish thing by swallowing what they had paid for! Taking the railway system of the United Kingdom, it appears that upwards of two hundred million fares were paid by travelers in 1863 (of course the same persons often paying several fares), and yet only one person was killed in every six million of these journeys, and of these fatalities only one in every fifteen million journeys was caused other than by the fault of the traveler. There was one accident to every five hundred thousand personal journeys. If, as Mr. Buxton calculates, there are half a million drunkards in the United Kingdom out of a population, exclusive of young children, of fifteen millions, and if the losses by death (say three per cent) are made up by those who pass from the class of mode- rate drinkers into drunkards, a comparison of the risks incurred by railway traveling and by drinking will be instructive. The risk of being killed on a railway is as 1 to 6,000,000 journeys, and of being injured as 1 to 500,000 journeys; but the annual risk of becoming a drunkard in any given year is six thousand times greater than of being killed on a railway, and five hund- red times greater than of being injured on the same in cases of conveyance. No. 10. --------♦-♦-------- TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. To the Rev. Dr. E. Nott, LL. D., President Union College, Schenectady, U S. A. Paris, May 1st, 1860. My Dear Sir : Since I last wrote you, I have had an in- teresting interview with Cardinal Wiseman, in Rome. I found him entirely posted up with regard to the adultera- tions of liquors, and the baneful influences they were exert- ing on the world, especially the laboring classes, and he approved a plan, which, if sanctioned by the Roman Catholic bishops in America, he said he would second at the Vatican. Other ecclesiastics in Rome, of high station, have promised to aid the measure also. You will perceive by the English press, that the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer is making an effort to introduce weak, cheap wine into England, at a low duty, and then fill the land with additional licensed places to sell it, and this as a temperance measure. The total abstainers, as well as many others, are up in arms to prevent this, and they are bringing up their arguments and statistics to prove that, in their opinion, in place of being a " temperance measure," it will increase intemperance to a frightful extent. The same idea prevails in England, as in many minds in the United States, that by the introduction of cheap and weak wines, intemperance would by degrees die out. Noth- ing, in my opinion, can be more delusive ; let the love of weak wine be established, then it will not satisfy, stronger will soon take the place of the weak, and then ardent spir- its will follow as a matter of course. On thorough examination, facts and arguments have es- tablished the truth, that all use of alcohol as a beverage, whether in large or small quantities, is opposed to health and life : the question is only one of degree. 142 temperance of wine countries. Cardinal Wiseman, in writing on the subject, remarks :— "Though compared with other nations, the Italians can- not be considered as unsober, and the lightness of their or- dinary wines does not so easily produce lightness of head as heavier potations ; they are fond of the osteria and the bettola, in which they sit and sip for hours, encouraged by the very sobriety of their drinks. There, time is lost, and evil conversation exchanged ; there stupid discussions are raised, whence spring noisy brawls, the jar of which kindles fierce passions, and sometimes deadly hate. Occasionally even worse ensues. From the tongue sharpened as a sword, the inward fury flies to the sharper steel lurking in the vest or the legging • and the body pierced by a fatal wound, stretched on the threshold of the hostelry, proves the deadly violence to which a quarrel over cups may lead." This statement of the Cardinal coincides with my exami- nations, and the experience of thirty years. Science and the Bible fully sustain the same great doctrine. Science and the Bible, when rightly understood (the Author of both being the same), are always in harmony. If the Bible sanctions the use of alcohol, or intoxicating drinks, as a bev- erage in health, then there should be an end of the movement in favor of total abstinence as a duty ; but I believe, aud think you are of the same opinion, that the Bible throughout, is a total abstinence book, as far as intoxicating drinks are concerned as a beverage in health. If this view of the scriptural doctrine of temperance is true, is it not time that the Church of Christ should be governed by it ? If not true, let the error be exposed, and the moderate use of alcohol, as a common beverage, be henceforth considered true tem- perance by true temperance men. Rev. Sydney Smith declared :—" If you wish to keep your mind or body healthy, abstain from all fermented liquors." Sir Henry Holland (his son-in-law) says:—"All men should, for health's sake, make at least one fair trial of abandoning the use of wine and all intoxicating drinks." Lord Acton, while Supreme Judge of Rome (afterwards Cardinal), stated in a letter addressed to me on the subject: " I beg leave to state my opinion upon the proportion of crimes which in this country maybe traced, for their origin, either to the immoderate use of wine, or to the too great TEMPERANCE of wine COUNTRIES. 143 frequenting of public houses. I think I may fairly record one-third under this head." Lord Bacon wrote :—" Of all things known to mortals, wine is the most powerful and effectual for exciting and inflaming the passions of mankind, being common fuel to them all." Of course Lord Bacon doubtless alluded to bad wine—wine " the mocker"—not the wine of the cluster, the , press, and the vat ; and before " the mocker" had been formed by fermentation. Milton asks—" What more foul and common sin among us than drunkenness ? and who can be ignorant that, if the importation of wine, and the use of all strong drinks were forbidden, it would rid the possibility of committing that odious vice, and men might afterwards live happily and healthfully, without the use of these intoxicating drinks." I find the following in a letter addressed by the Rev. D. Burns, of London, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer :—■ " The Archbishop of Cambray, in his ' Telemachus,' com- posed for the instruction of that young Prince, whose early death was considered a providential judgment on France, sought to convey those principles of government and moral conduct which should bless the French nation with a wiser sovereign than Louis XIV." International peace and free trade, are doctrines of which Fenelon was an early apostle ; and as to wine, what was hia sentiment, founded on all he saw around him? There are two passages which answer to this inquiry. Adoam had described the happy state of the people of Boeatica ; and in answer to the question of Telemachus, whether they drank wine, Adoam answered :—" They care so little for drink- ing it that they never wish to make it. Not because they are without grapes, for no soil produces more delicious ones, but they are satisfied with eating the grape, as they do other fruits, and they dread wine as the corrupter of mankind. It is a species of poison, they say, which causes madness. It does not make man die, but it degrades him into a brute. Men may preserve their health and vigor without wine ; with wine they run the risk of ruining their health and losing their morals." Quite as remarkable is the advice given by Mentor to Idomeneus :—" I believe, too, that you ought to take care 144 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. never to allow wine to become too common in your king- dom ; if too many vines are planted, they must be rooted up. Wine is the source of the greatest evils among com- munities. It causes diseases, quarrels, seditions, idleness, aversion to labor, and family disorder. Let wine, then, be preserved as a kind of restorative, or as a very rare liquor, not to be used except for sacrifices, or for extraordinary fes- tivities ; but do not hope to cause the observance of so important a rule, if you do not yourself set the example." How surprisingly the evidence here recorded of the teach- ings of Fenelon, coincides with the opinions of Louis Phil- ippe, and his son, the Dnke of Orleans, as expressed to me in the presence of General Cass, our most worthy minister here in 1838. I see that the Rev. D. Burns has recorded the conversa- tion, in part, that took place at this interview. This impor- tant testimony has often been published, but in this commu- nication it may not be out of place to give it again. I take it in the main from his letter to the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer :— " How matters stand in France, more facts will show ; and the authorities cited shall be the late King of the French, Louis Philippe, and his much-loved son, the Duke of Orleans. I was anxious, on the 19th instant, to place before you the printed statement relating to this circumstance, but it will be enough now to explain that, in the November of 1838, Mr. E. C. Delavan, a gentleman of New York State, visited France, andobtaincd an interview with the King, who, says Mr. Delavan, " stated expressly that the drunkenness of France was occasioned by wine ; that in one district of his empire, there was much intemperance on gin, but he consid- ered wine the great evil. I took the liberty of asking him if I understood him to say that his opinion was that wine occasioned most of the evils of intoxication in Fiance, and was answered in the same words:—'The drunkenness of France is on wine.' " I stated to the King that I had been outside the barriers, where the common people resort to drink wine, because there it is free of duty. ' Oh,' said he, ' there you will see drunkenness,' and truly I had seen it there, in all its horrors and debasing effects, and chiefly on wine. I told him my TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 146 guide said that he thought one-eighth of the adult male population of Paris were drunkards. His Majesty thought this too great a proportion." The Duke of Orleans, in a conversation with the same gentleman, remarked, as the King had done, that he had no doubt that all intoxicating drinks are injurious as a beverage to men in health, and that the intemperance of France was on wine. " He also stated that in those districts where most wine was made, there also was the greatest wretchedness, and the most frequent appeals to government for aid ; and also, that so large a proportion of the soil was now cultivated for wine, that the raising of stock and grain was diminished to an alarming extent, and that he looked to the diminution in the use of wine in other countries as a source of hope to France, that failing of a market for her wines, the fields of France might be cultivated to greater advantage, to produce more abundant food and clothing for the people." I will add to the above statement, that the Duke of Orleans told me that the drinking of a single bottle of wine a day, by the sol- dier, it being weak, would do but little injury ; but the use of this bottle stimulated the appetite, and the pay went to purchase more, the use of which caused breach of rules— and disorders of all kinds—then followed court-martials and punishments. Louis Philippe, or his son, told me that raw silk, to the value of 100,000,000 of francs was yearly imported into France, which might be produced in the country, were not the soil monopolised to so great a degree by the vine. How wise it would be in the Emperor of the French to discourage the replacing of the diseased grape vines with new ones ; indeed, to discourage the cultivation of the grape vine altogether, except for food and other allowable purposes. Such a course would, in my opinion, add greatly to the wealth, health, morals, and general prosperity of the nation. Some articles in "Household Words," in 1854, on the workmen of France, described the lamentable influence of the wine shops ; and in 1855, the Times' Paris correspondent stated, that on the 30th of October, the Prefect of the De- partment of the Sarthe had issued a circular to all the may- ors of his department, in which he declared "the resorting to wine houses is deplorable in every respect, for there the 13 146 TEMPERANCE OP WINE COUNTRIES. Government is villified, the health impaired, and the resour- ces of the family foolishly squandered, to the detriment of morality and religion." In the words of De Quincey, "Preparations of intoxica- ting liquor, even when harmless in their earlier stages, are fitted to be stepping-stones for making the transition to higher stages that are not harmless." Smollett, the historian and novelist, found about a hundred years since, in the course of his travels, " that all wine dis- tricts are poor, and the French peasantry were always more healthy when there was a scarcity of wine." The Count de Montalembert (and he a Frenchman, ought to know,) said in his place in the French National Assembly, 1850, " Where there is a wine shop there are the elements of disease, and the frightful source of all that is at emnity with the interests of the workmen." In an article in the Magazine, called "The Work-a-day World of France," the following alarming picture is drawn of the condition of the French industrial centres :— " Drunkenness is the beginning and end of life in the great French industrial centres. Against this vice what can the salaries of women and children do ? The woman's labors help the drunken husband on his road to ruin. The child is born with disease in his bones, and with evil example before him." " There are manufacturing towns (Lille for instance), where the women have followed the example of the men, and have added drunkenness to their other vices. It is es- timated that at Lille, 25 out of every 100 men, and 12 out of every 100 women, are confirmed drunkards. Here there are even women's wine shops, where the unfortunate fre- quenters drink coffee and spirits, while their babes lie drugged at home with a ' dormant,' as the popular infant's narcotic is called." Well may the talented editor of the " Alliance Weekly News," say "this is a terrible picture ; and of France, too, the land of light wines, where Mr. Gladstone's Temperance drink is the cheap and abundant popular beverage. It is no surprise to us to learn that the mayors of manufacturing towns in France have begun to turn their eyes towards pro- hibition, as the only available remedy." TEMPERANCE OP WINE COUNTRIES. 147 In 1833, Judge Piatt, one of the Supreme Judges of the State of New York, stated in a public address, "that when the public mind was properly enlightened, grog shops would be indictable at common law as public nuisances'' Chancellor Walworth, about the same time, in his annual address before the New York State Temperance Society (of which he was their first President), stated " that it was his opinion that the time would come, when men would as soon be engaged in poisoning their neighbor's wells, as dealing out to them intoxicating drinks to be used as a beverage." Horatio Greenough, the eminent American sculptor, in a letter to me from Florence, in 1838, said :—"Many of the more thinking and prudent Italians abstain from the use of wine ; several of the most eminent of the medical men are notoriously opposed to its use, and declare it a poison. When I assure you that one-fifth, and sometimes one-fourth of the earnings of the laborers are expended in wine, you may form -some idea as to its probable influence on their health and thrift." lie also stated that the dealers in the weak wines, did not hesitate to adulterate them in order to add a trifle to their gains. J. Fenimore Cooper, the American novelist, said :—" I came to Europe under the impression that there was more drunkenness among us than in any other country, England, perhaps, excepted. A residenceof six months in Paris changed my vieivs entirely]' " Light wines," sa}'s Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, "noth- ing so treacherous ! They inflame the brain like fire, wdiile melting on the palate like ice. All inhabitants of light wine countries are quarrelsome." " Oh thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee DEVIL."—[Shakespeare. In a former communication I described Piquette, or the ordinary wine (so called) of the country, as being a mere "decoction" leeched from grape stalks, skins, &c, after being drenched with water, and after all the wine had been trodden out by the feet. In answer to an inquiry with regard to the average value of Piquette, &c, Messrs. Barton, Guertier & Co., wrote mo from Bordeaux, 27th of April, 1860 :— 148 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. "The wine vats of Medoc, produce, on an average, 40 hhds. of wine ; each 63 American gallons, or 48 English Imperial gallons. "The average value of Piquette in Medoc, and about Bordeaux, has varied, like the wine, 150 per cent, within the last five or six years. "The Imperial gallon, without the cask, in 1853, was 31 centimes (about 6 sous), in 1860, 38 centimes (about 8 sous). Piquette pure, however, is hardly to be met with, and is replaced by mixtures of cider, rum and water, and all sorts of artificial beverages." It appears from this that even the mild wines are used up by fabrications, and mixed with all sorts of artificial sub- stances, and then palmed off upon the public and the nations of the world, as pure healthful wines. This statement agrees with that of the sculptor Greenough. The French drink wine as we in America drink tea and coffee. No wonder that the great physician, Broussais, found the stomachs of most of the adults'he dissected, in a state of disease, and that he came to the conclusion at last, that that disease was occasioned by the use of heating liquors. No wonder, too, that Dr. Sewall, of Washington, in his dis- sections, found the stomachs of even regular moderate drinkers of intoxicating liquor in a state of inflammation, and so recorded them in his admirable drawings of their stomachs. How could it be otherwise ? Alcohol is as sure to make an impression on the stomach as on the face. In walking the streets of Paris for weeks past, I have been much struck with the difference in appearance of the middle-aged and more advanced among the higher classes here and in Italy. There the use of strong drink of any kind is limited, and it is rare to meet a face among the class specified, indicating intemperance ; here such faces meet you at every turn, faces not bearing the hue of health, but that hue which indicates the ravages of the poison alcohol. "Alcohol," says Liebig, " is a bill drawn on the laborer's health (every man should be a laborer of some sort), which he is incessantly compelled to renew, as he has not funds to meet it ; the bankruptcy of the bod}' is the inevitable result." Dr. Romeyn Beck, in his Medical Jurisprudence, says : ,f That aloohol, whether found in rum, brandy or wine, is ' poison,' is con- TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 149 ceded on all hands. It is classed among poisons, because, says a learned writer, it is one of ' those substances which are known by physicians as capa- ble, of altering or destroying, in a majority of cases, some of the functions necssary to life.' " I have no doubt the surface of the stomach of the regular moderate drinker of alcohol is always in a state of disease, and diseased in proportion to the alcohol used. It must be so, or Liebig and Dr. Beck are in error as respects the qual- ities of alcohol. The diminished production of pure wine on the continent, and consequent increase of price, and the fear of being poisoned by fabrications, may have had some influence, not only in checking consumption, but in lessening crime and poverty to the like extent. Then again, ihe recent great extension of the barriers here has brought all the drinking of the inhabitants within them ; before this extension the laboring classes of Paris were in the habit of resorting to wine shops outside the barriers, where they could drink free of duty. Now these same drinking places are brought within, and when resorted to for intemperance, the city tax on the liquor is added to the price. Having a letter of introduction to one of the most exten- sive vendors of pure wine here, he stated very frankly that wine was not a necessary article, but that, like Adam and Eve, we were all prone to do that which was forbidden. He told me that the wine introduced into Paris was not Piquette, but heady wine ; that the fabrications took place in the city, and that he believed that full one-half of the liquor drank as wine in Paris was fabricated. I have learned from another source, t\,at pretty much all the common wine sold in the shops is manufactured in the city, and is of the most injurious quality, from the material! used in the manufacture, aside from its contained alcohol. Families purchasing directly from makers of known integ- rity, are alone partially safe from drugged wine ; and even they should be watchful as to the channel through which they receive it. The honest dealers find it difficult to carry on their trade in competition with the fabricators. The wine merchant above referred to, stated that being ill, his physician recommended him to take his own Bur- gundy as a medicine. In place of taking his advice, he 150 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. drank nothing but water for six weeks, and recovered. The physician was well pleased with the recovery of his patient, and that his remedy had been so effectual; but when told that water had been substituted for wine, he looked blank enough. Still no temperance movement opposes the cau- tious use of pure intoxicating drink as a medicine ; but, when used as a medicine, it should be abandoned like other medicines the moment it has effected the object for which it was used. A gentleman told me that he drank strong beer at dinner by advice of his physician. I asked him, " How long have you been taking this medicine at dinner?" " Two years," was his reply. I remarked that I thought it rather a singu- lar habit to take medicine for so long a time at the dinner table. After a moment's reflection he laughed outright, and said, " I will own up, I love it." Another gentleman of the same city called on me while here in 1838, and remarked, " I am 74 years old; I was in the habit of taking two glasses of wine a day as a medicine ; I gave it up because I wished to give my entire example to the cause of temperance, and much to my surprise, I found the disease left me I had been taking wine to cure." While in Rome I saw it announced that he had died at the age of 94. I know men sometimes live to a great age using alcohol, but they live on in spite of alcohol, and probably would have lived much longer without it. Let one case in a thousand exist like this, and it is constantly quoted in opposition to the only safe principle—total abstinence from all that can intoxicate as a beverage in health. "Out of a caravan of eighty-two persons, who crossed the great desert from Algiers to Tiuibuctoo, the present summer, all but fifteen used wine and other liquors, as a preventive against African diseases. Soon alter reaching Timbuctoo, these all died, save one; while of the fifteen who abstained all eurvived." This wine merchant directed me to where I could see the results of wine drinking in all its debasement. I visited one wine shop with my guide last evening (Monday) ; I saw the proprietor, and told him that I was curious to see his establishment; he was very polite, and sent a person round with us. At the lowest, five hundred persons were already assem- bled, and the people were flocking there in droves; men TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 151 women and children, whole families, young girls alone, boys alone, taking their seats at tables ; a mother with an infant on her arm came reeling up one of the passages. It was an immense establishment, occupying three sides of a square, three or four stories high, and filling rapidly with wine votaries. I saw hundreds in a state of intoxica- tion, to a greater or less degree. All, or nearly all, had wine before them. The attendant stated to me that the day before (Sunday) at least 2,000 visited the establishment, and that the average consumption of wine was 2,000 bottles per day. This place was considered a rather respectable wine shop. My guide then took me to another establishment, not ten minutes' ride from the Emperor's Palace. The scene here beggars description. I found myself in a narrow lane, filled with men and women of the lowest grade. The first object which met my sight was a man dragging another out of the den by the hair, into the lane. Then com- menced a most inhuman fight ; at least fifty people were at hand, but not a soul attempted to part the combatants ; at last one fell against the curb-stone, I thought him dead, but he soon got up again, and at it they went. I then entered into the outer room of the establishment, which was packed full of the most degraded human beings I ever beheld, drinking wine, and talking in loud voices. I did not dare to proceed further. It was much worse than the wine shops I visited in Rome, in 1839, when I was sent by Cardinal Acton, to see the result of wine drinking there. It is rather a remarkable fact, that in starting on my expe- dition last night, as I was entering my cab for the purpose, the very man who took me to that Roman wine shop, in 1839, was standing at the door of my hotel. I asked him if he remembered the circumstance. "Oh, well," said he. " It was bad enough ; " and well do I recol- lect his having said to me at the time, " Let us go, our lives are in danger here." I was informed by the cabman, that in the establishment last visited, he had seen from 80 to. 150 lying drunk at a time ; that they frequently drank to beastly drunkenness, and remained until the fumes passed off, for if found drunk in the streets the police take them in charge. 152 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. Mr. Gladstone's plan of inundating Great Britain with French liquor called wine, at a low rate of duty, as a tem- perance measure, is calling forth extensive and thorough information with regard to the effect of the use of wine on the inhabitants of mis-named temperate drinking France. An intelligent Englishman, now engaged in making exami- nations witli regard to this important question, has written a long letter to his correspondent in England, giving some of the results. I make a brief extract from his letter : " That men—any men—can sit for hours drinking wine, of ever so moderate a percentage of alcohol, without perceptible effect, no one can believe. When, however, we find that the wine is not so moderate as is commonly sup- posed, and that the stronger liquors are pretty freely used, the effort to main- tain a calm exterior becomes a more difficult matter. Anyhow, even within the early hours, the effect is apparent on not a few; while, as evening advances, the reign of Bacchus becomes more conspicuous. " If not (in appearance) drunk, they are excited. If stupefied, they would be comparatively harmless. If maddened, they would be shunned. The simple Boor sleeps after his pot, and is wheeled to his bed. The whisky-lov- ing Irishman flourishes his stick, and makes a clear course with all except another inspired one. The wine-elevated Frenchman is raised to the danger- ous point—dangerous to himself and others. His passions are not drowned or enfeebled, but developed and intensified. He has had sufficient to silence conscience; but not to subdue reason. He is not bestialised but devilised. Such a man requires not to be placed within the sphere of temptation to commit sin; he carries with him a defiled moral atmosphere, and becomes himself the tempter. The principles of true honor are forgotten, and the claims of friendship and society are disregarded. He is prepared to execute any evil to gratify his own unholy feelings, provided he does not place himself in danger. Burning with base passions, he is not so lost by the drink as to hazard his own person, or fail to win his object by incautious haste. He is thus truly drunk in the worst possible degree—in the most dangerous sense. As I shall be here- after able to prove, in my subsequent communications, the sad moral state of Trance and other continental countries, is more owing to alcoholic liquors, mild as they may be, than to all other causes put together." I add from another reliable source : t( With regard to intemperance, it has almost become an accepted fact, that it is more prevalent in England than in any other country. But we have only wanted accurate and reliable statistics to dispel this fallacy. Mr. Jules Simon shows us that in the manufacturing towns of France, that hitherto accepted model of a temperate country, the working classes who inhabit the squalid lodgings of the back slums, are as violently addicted to liquor, as the most degraded of the same class in England. We can find no parallel in London to the picture drawn by M. Simon, of a Rouen wine shop. The work- men are no sooner let loose from the factory than they rush in a mass to the cabaret, while a crowd of weeping wives may be seen waiting for them for weary hours outside the doors. The apprentices, at the early age of twelve, may be seen drinking the coarse brandy, which they very aptly call the " cruel." As a body, those workmen and their families are feeble and sickly. They die at a terrible rate." TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 153 Cardinal Acton stated to me in 1839, the Government of Rome had more to fear from the wine shops, than from any other source. I am convinced that the Emperor of the French has more to fear from the wine shops than all other sources united. They furnish the material for riot and revolution, and the wine drank in them is the stimulant to every vice. Ameri- cans and others, visiting the fashionable walks of Paris and other continental cities, seeing but few staggering men in the streets, suppose, and honestly suppose, that wine coun- tries are, in a great measure, free from the vice of intem- perance, but it is a great mistake. I was told there were hundreds of such places in Paris as I visited last night. I do hope that hereafter my countrymen interested in the question, when in Paris, will devote an hour or two on some Monday evening to the examination I went through last night. By so doing, they would, like Mr. Greeley, of the Tribune, help to correct a great mistake. I could not but wish last evening that Mr. Gladstone had been with me. Had he seen what I saw, I think we should hear no more of his Wine Bill, unless immediate income has more weight with him than public morals, which I do not believe. Solomon seems to have understood this matter better than some good men of the present day, when he says :—" Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is de- ceived thereby is not wise." " Who hath woe ? Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath babbling ? Who hath wounds without cause ? Who hath redness of e3res ? They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine." And it would seem that Isaiah had wit- nessed scenes somewhat similar to those described, when he said :—" But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way ; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink ; they are swal- lowed up of wine ; they are out of the way through strong drink ; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean." If such facts and opinions as the above, from men who could have no motive to mislead, will not satisfy the intelli- gent mind of the fallacy of introducing cheap and weak 154 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. wines into any country, as a temperance measure, I do not know what will. Brussels, Belgium, May 4th, 1860. Being in this city for a day or two only, I have had no time to make any personal examination, but while visiting the Parliament House, I met with a very intelligent person, who gave me some information on the drinking usages of the people. He stated that the principal beverage is strong beer, of which, at least 200 tuns are consumed daily in Brussels, each tun containing from 250 to 300 litres. Besides this beer, much French wine is drank, most of which is very bad, being falsified. He stated that a large proportion of the deaths here are occasioned by these drinks. Many will drink from ten to twelve large glasses of beer at a sitting. London, May 9lh. When in this city, in 1838, I attended a vast meeting of the friends of temperance from all parts of the kingdom, at Exeter Hall. After a severe and exciting contest, the pledge of the American Temperance Union was adopted by a vote almost unanimous. The Queen was then at the head of the movement opposed to the use of ardent spirits. Since the adoption of the total abstinence pledge, I believe no organization favoring any other exists, either in this country or any other. The name is of little importance, the thing is everything; alcohol is the same poison, whether found in the wine decanter or the gin flask. When alcohol in the wine cup was assailed, although the same poison as alcohol in the whisky jug, many, as you well know, walked no longer with us. I could give a tragical history of some who halted, while you and others went right on. Not a day has passed over my head since I was here, in 1838, that I have not felt deep regret that Her Majesty could not have seen it to be her duty at that time, to continue in the movement, and sanction total abstinence from the use of alcohol in fermented drinks, as she has from alcohol in ardent spirits. I pray she may yet see it to-be her duty to take the step. I have had a long conversation with one of Her Majesty's household; he spoke of the habits of the Queen and the TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 155 heir to the throne, and as extremely moderate in the use of strong drink. I asked him what he thought the effect upon the world would be, should they adopt entire abstinence: his reply was, " mighty." Last night was one of deep interest to me. At an early hour, I was placed, by the politeness of a member, in one of the best seats for listening to the debates on the floor of the House of Commons. The great discussion of the night was the Chancellor of the Exchequer's wine bill, to extend licenses to vend wine to all persons selling refreshments. The object of the bill was to bring eating and wine drink- ing into an indissoluble union. Had the bill passed in the shape it was introduced by Mr. Gladstone, I have no doubt there would have been 100,000 licensed drinking shops added to those already in existence. The opposition to the measure was very powerful, and I suppose, for the first time, the principle of total abstinence was broached in Parliament. Very feeble, indeed, was the advocacy in its favor. One member remarked, "should the bill be passed, the drunkenness of Paris will be superadded to that of London." How I did wish men could have been there like Bishop Alonzo Potter of Pennsylvania, General Cary, Chancellor Walworth, and many others I could mention, to shed light upon this great subject; but, as it was, the Chancellor of the Exchequer trembled for his measure, and had he not pro- mised to amend it in many important particulars, it never could have reached (I have been assured) its third reading. I send you the London Times containing the discussion. The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledged that the whole question of license was involved in the discussion. I think, with him, that the question now before Parliament 'does involve the whole license system"—a system hon- estly designed to check intemperance, but its effect ever has been to legalize and make respectable a traffic which, in fact, is a most intolerable nuisance, and the parent of every crime known to the courts. When the public mind shall be properly instructed with regard to the results of this system, pure minded law makers will as soon license men to go forth with poisoned daggers, to stab their fellow- creatures, as license them, with poisonous liquors to exe- 156 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. cute, and with unrelenting vengeance, on like unsuspecting victims, the same work of death. Lord Chesterfield, in his address before the House of Lords, 125 years ago, touched the point exactly. He said : " luxury, my lords, is to be taxed, but vice prohibited, let the difficulty of the law be what it will. Luxury, or that which is pernicious by excess, may very properly be taxed, that such excess, though not unlawful, may be made more difficult; but the use of those things which are simply hurtful in their own nature, (intoxicating drinks as a beve- rage are always so), and in every degree, is to be prohi- bited." I must in candor say that it is my belief that, from the peculiar government and stability of the laws in Great Britian, the rich blessings to flow from the total prohibition of the liquor traffic will be enjoyed there much sooner than with us in America. I am rejoiced to find that the labor of instructing the public mind on this question is in the hands of men who will never relax their efforts until the work be accom- plished. The belief is becoming more and more diffused, that intoxicating liquors are never necessary or beneficial as a beverage in health. Their sale for such use is at war with the best interests of the people, under every government and in every land. Physicians are greatly in the way of the total abstinence movement. I have hardly conversed with a moderate drinker, who has not opposed me by saying, " I drink by order of my physician." Even Mr. Gladstone, in defence of his own wine bill, read a note from Dr. Ferguson in favor of it, and remarked also that the same celebrated physician recommended wine to him in " no illiberal potations." (Now this same Dr. Ferguson signed a certificate, with hundreds of the most distinguished medical men in the country, giving it as their opinion that the use of even fermented drinks was never necessary, but injurious as a beverage in health, and millions of copies of this certificate were circu- lated in the United States.) Doctors ought, it should seem, to know better. Look back, my dear sir, to the end of many of the greatest statesmen in our own, as well as in TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 157 this country. In how many instances have they been betrayed by the fallacy of the assumption that wine is a healthful beverage, into a practice which has proved fatal alike to their happiness and their virtue. Surely it cannot be desirable to superadd to the miseries occasioned by beer drinking in England, the intense miseries inflicted by the drinking of the fabricated wines of France. The more wealthy classes will not drink the kind of wine now about to be introduced; the object is to induce the middle classes to take to wine drinking as a temperance measure. If the Emperor of the French really entertains malicious designs against England, to wipe out the recollection of Waterloo, and the thoughts which St. Helena naturally calls forth, I do not see how he could have his feelings more gratified than by deluging the English-nation with his fabricated drinks. I have no doubt, should Mr. Gladstone's plan be fully carried out, there would be more people destroyed by it yearly in this country than fell-on the field of Waterloo. It is a well ascertained fact, that there is not enough pure wine produced in France to supply the tables of the wealthy of that country, so that shipments of the " decoctions " called wine, as a general rule, will be of the most disgusting and poisonous character, unfit to be used by man or beast. Forty years ago, and before science had taught the secret of transmutation of drinks, and when alcohol was the only poison in them to be contended with, a man might live-on using them, "with all becoming mode- ration," for twenty years or so, without becoming a stag- gering drunkard; but now, since these scientific discoveries, it is a well ascertained fact in the United States, that on the average a man does not live over three years after the love of these fabricated intoxicating drinks has gained an ascendency over him. Of all the humbugs by which the good people of England and America are taken in, there is none quite equal to the wine humbug. I find the following in the London Times, in relation to the individual who negotiated the Commercial Treaty with France (I only apply to the wine part of it)— "To use a good old ivord, which in the days of Queen Anne was classical English, the Emperor has completely 'bubbled' him." 14 158 TEMPERANCE OF AVINE COUNTRIES. The Times remarks that the object of the L>ill is to intro- duce a drink " less poisonous" than gin. Why in the name of common sense should Government desire to introduce a " poisonous" drink at all, and then commission men to sell it as a common beverage ? What are to be the remedies for the appalling evils, flow- ing from the use of alcohol as a beverage ? for alcohol is the poison which causes the drunkenness of the wTorld. Alcohol is, indeed, a good creature of God, but misapplied when used as a beverage in health, as really as laudanum or prussic acid would be. The doctrine that the Bible sanctions the use of intoxi- cating drinks, as a beverage, has been the bane of the church, and has already caused the downfall of millions upon millions within its Pale, and is still leading other mil- lions on to the same impending judgment. The delusive doctrine, that the moderate use of intoxi- cating drinks as a beverage, is safe, and excess is only to be avoided, has caused most of the drunkenness of the world; this delusion must be expelled, or intemperance will continue to the end of time. The use of alcohol, as a beverage in health, is at all times, and in all cases, a viola- tion of the laws of life, which are the laws of God; and so long as such moderate use of intoxicating poison is sanc- tioned, or winked at by the church, drunkenness will (though unwittingly) be sanctioned. Temperance organizations have, through their presses and lectures, furnished the world with facts and arguments to show that there can be no cure for the mighty evil in question, but total abstinence; by doing which they have cleared the way for the church to come to the rescue, and carry forward the glorious work to its final consummation. This done, the church having spoken, and the national con- science quickened by her voice, the right kind of legisla- tion will follow, and an end be put to the sale of poisons, which now (under sanction of law) is producing an amount of disease, poverty, taxation and crime, under the weight of which the nation, especially our cities, groan. Even now the people of the United States are fully pre- pared for stringent laws against the vending of fabricated liquors. TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. 159 Let Congress enact a law to have trustworthy chemists appointed in all our ports of entry, to test imported liquors, and if found to be adulterated, condemned. Let State leg- islators enact laws to prevent the sale of adulterated liquors, and to inflict severe punishment on those infringing such laws, and a step would be taken in the right direction; a step which, by the blessing of God, might prove the inception of measures destined to lead to the removal of the curse of intemperance, to the renovation of the world. The use of tobacco in Europe is becoming as general as in America, and its effects are most manifest; the evil is second only to the use of alcohol, and if not arrested will, in time, reduce the people of Europe and America to the present condition of China and Turkey, through their use of opium. The testimony of Lord Brougham is of great value with regard to the wine question. He has an estate on the Con- tinent; he resides thereon a part of the year, and can speak from personal observation. I visited his Lordship in his castle in England; we exchanged views on the Temperance question generally; his mind is tending to prohibition. He asked me whether I thought strong beer injurious; I re- plied, "just so far as it contains alcohol and drugs; just so far I consider it injurious as a beverage in health." He gave three very significant nods to my reply; I concluded he understood the science of alcohol as well as Liebig. In an address before the society for the promotion of social science, delivered at Glasgow, speaking of the Maine Liquor Law, he says, and I think with great truth and justice: * " At our last Congress, great attention was given to the important subject of temperance, and especially to the necessity of preparing public opinion for those repressive measures which experience daily proves more and more clearly to be required for lessening the consumption of spirituous liquors The great source of pauperism and of crimes has hitherto only been attacked by palliatives, and although these have had a certain success, yet if there be * This letter was published in England, and a copy placed before each member of the House of Lords and Commons, before Mr. Gladstone's wine bill came up for discussion. Lord Brougham in his place sustained me as to the effects of the use of wine in wine producing countries-*—E. C D. 160 TEMPERANCE OF WINE COUNTRIES. any means not exposed to ^serious objections, by which the evil may be extirpated, the gain to society would be incal- culable. Remember the memorable expression of that great philanthropist, our eminent colleague, the Recorder of Bir- mingham, ' AVhatever step I take,' says Mr. Hill, ' and into whatever direction I may strike, the drink demon starts up before me, and blocks the way.' " This is a subject which, happily with us, has never in any respect, been brought within the dominion of party, cither civil or religious. Such, however, has been its lot in \he New World; and it affords the most remarkable illus- tration of the evils which afflict the United States from the practice of their constitution, maintaining in every part of the country an incessant canvass, caused by the distribu- tion of patronage and change of offices. Every subject of a nature to interest the community, and thus to create a difference of opinion, becomes the ground of controversy to contending parties, and so the Maine Liquor Law becomes a question upon which Governors were chosen and removed. The evils which the suspension of that law occasioned in the great increase of pauperism and crimes Avhich had, under its beneficent operation, been reduced within an incredibly narrow compass, but which now rapidly revived, so seriously impressed men's minds with the mischief of having made it a party question that a resolution was passed at the State convention against ever so treating the subject hereafter. Nothing can redound more to the honor of the American people than their thus firmly persevering in their just and righteous determination. But it is impos- sible to avoid feeling how great is our happiness in this country to be free from the influence of such disturbing forces upon our most important measures. We discuss them freely on their own merits, and apply to the considera- tion of them those principles which, on mere matters of science—but science reduced to practice—should guide the inquiry and dictate the conclusions. We are removed above the storms raised by popular fury, nor are ever stunned by the noise which the psalmist compares to that of the raging sea; and our vision is not obscured by the clouds which faction drives together." Yeurs very truly, EDWARD C. DELAVAN. 3STo. 11. --------♦-♦---------- [From the Albany Atlas.] A THRILLING SCENE, ILLUSTRATING MODERATE DRINKING. ------------♦*------------ Permit me to illustrate my views of moderate drinking, by relating substantially a thrilling scene, which occurred in a town in a neighboring State, while the people were gathered together to discuss the merits of the license question, and decide informally, whether neighbors should any longer be permitted to destroy each other by vending alcoholic poisons. The town had suffered greatly from the sale and use of intoxicating liquors. The leading influences were opposed to total abstinence. At the meeting, the clergyman, a deacon, and the physician, were present, and were all in favor of con- tinuing the custom of license—all in favor of permitting a few men of high moral character to sell alcohol—for they all ao-reed in the opinion, that alcohol in moderation, when used as a beverage, was a good creature of God, and also, to restrict the sale or moderate use, was an unjust interference with human liberty, and a reflection upon the benevolence of the Almighty. They all united in the belief, that in the use of alcohol as a beverage, excess alone was to be avoided. The feeling appeared to be all one way, when a single teeto- taller,* who was present by accident, but who had been a former resident of the town, begged leave to differ from the speakers who had preceded him. He entered into a history * The facts contained in this article were furnished by this teetotaller. 162 A THRILLING SCENE. of the village from its early settlement ; he called the atten- tion of the assembly to the desolation moderate drinking had brought upon families and individuals; he pointed to the poor-house, the prison-house, and the grave-yard, for its numerous victims ; he urged the people by every considera- tion of mercy, to let down the flood gates, and prevent, as far as possible, the continued desolation of families, by the mode- rate use of alcohol. But all would not do. The arguments of the clergyman, the deacon, and the physician, backed by station, learning and influence, were too much for the single teetotaller. No one arose to continue the discussion or sup- port him, and the president of the meeting was about to put the question—when all at once there arose from one corner of the room, a miserable female. She was thinly clad, and her appearance indicated the utmost wretchedness, and that her mortal career was almost closed. After a moment of silence, and all eyes being fixed upon her, she stretched her attenuated body to its utmost height, then her long arms to their greatest length, and raising her voice to a shrill pitch, she called upon all to look upon her. " Yes ! " she said, "look upon me, and then hear me. All that the last speaker has said relative to moderate drinking, as being the father of all drunkenness, is true. All practice, all experience, declares its truth. All drinking of alcoholic poison, as a beverage in health, is excess. Look upon me. You all know me, or once did. You all know I was once the mistress of the best farm in this town. You all know, too, I once had one of the best—the most devoted of husbands. You all know I had five noble hearted, industrious boys. Where are they now ? Doctor, where are they now ? You all know. You all know they lie in a row, side by side, in yonder church-yard ; all—every one of them— filling the drunkard's grave ! 'They were all taught to believe that moderate drinking was safe,—excess alone ought to be avoided; and they necer acknowledged excess. They quoted you, and you, and you, pointing with her shred of a finger to the Priest, Deacon and Doctor, as authority. They thought themselves safe under such teachers. But I saw the gradual change coming over my family and prospects, with dismay and horror; I felt we were all to be overwhelmed in one common ruin ; I tried to ward off the blow; I tried to break the spell —the delusive spell—in which the idea of the benefits of ANOTHER. 163 moderate drinking had involved my husband and sons; I begged, I prayed ; but the odds were greatly against me. The Priest said the poison that was destroying my husband and boys was a good creature of God ; the Deacon (who sits under the pulpit there, and took our farm to pay his rum bills), sold them the poison ; the Physician said that a little was good, and excess ought to be avoided. My poor husband and my dear boys fell into the snare, and one after another was con- veyed to the dishonored grave of the drunkard. Now look at me again—you probably see me for the last time—my sand has almost run. I have dragged my exhausted frame from my present abode—your poor-house—to warn you all—to warn you, Deacon!—to warn you, false teacher of God's word"—and with her arms high flung, and her tall form stretched to its utmost, and her voice raised to an unearthly pitch—she exclaimed, " I shall soon stand before the judg- ment seat of God—I shall meet you there, ye false guides, and be a swift witness against you all." The miserable female vanished—a dead silence pervaded the assembly—the Priest, Deacon and Physician hung their heads—the President of the meeting put the question—Shall we have any more licenses to sell alcoholic poisons, to be drank as a beverage? The re- sponse was unanimous—No? Friends of humanity every- where, what would have been your verdict had you been there ? ANOTHER. I was well acquainted with a gentleman in the city of New York, many years since, of high position in the church, and social standing in the community: he commenced the habit of moderate drinking at a period of life when the effect was not perceptible to all, while it was to me, still he never went beyond moderation. He had six sons—all but one became drunkards and died drunkards ; that one was discharged from a responsible public trust in consequence of his habits ; this brought him to his senses, he reformed, and appealed to me to help&to procure his restoration. I enquired of him the cause of all this desolation in his family. Oh ! said he, " it was the habit of my father to give to his sons after a certain age 164 TO TRUTH-SEEKERS. before breakfast, a small quantity of alcoholic bitters, to give them an appetite, and on Sunday to invite each to drink wine to the health of father and mother." Let me ask, who is to answer for all this ? E. C. D. TO TRUTH-SEEKERS. And does that blessed Book of books, which none But bold bad men despise, its sanction give To poisonous alcoholic wines ? And Can the Christian plead a Bible charter For the use of that which history, science, Reason, and experience, all combined On amplest scale, have fairly, fully proved To he inimical to man ? Hath God By inspiration taught frail, erring men, To venture on an awful precipice, Where danger lurks at every step ? Hath He Whose workmanship we are, no more regard Or care paternal for his creature man, Than thus to jeopardize, on ruin's brink, The fair and beauteous fabric of his hand, Whence shine creative wisdom, power and skill, In lines of brighter hue than all the vast Of nature's splendid scenery can boast ? Can it be thought that He, whose boundless love Evolved Redemption's scheme of grace immense, And laid upon his own all-potent arm The mighty undertaking—can it be That He approves the use of that which tends With constant, uniform, and powerful sway, To mar, pervert and frustrate all his work ? Did that same Jesus, from Heaven sent On God-like mission of eternal love, To spoil the powers of darkness, death, and hell, And lift from ruin's vortex of despair, A prostrate, helpless, dying, rebel world— Did He, by precept or example, stamp A signature divine upon that cup Which, as ' a mocker,' sparkles to deceive? TO TRUTH-SEEKERS. 165 Did He, the famous Galilean King, When first he showed his wonder-working arm, And poured the glory of his Father forth At Cana's holy, blest, connubial feast— Did He the copious water plenished jars Defile with poisonous adder-stinging wine, And palm upon that unsuspecting group A serpent, sparkling in a raging cup ? And did the holy, harmless, spotless Lamb Who gave his life for all, a ransom vast, And seal'd with blood the cov'nant of his grace— Did He the parting ' cup of blessing' fill With lust-inspiring wine ? Did He command His loved and loving ones to shadow forth His dying passion and undying love, By drinking at his sacred board of that Which, as a second curse, since the old flood, Has spread a tide of moral pestilence O'er all the earth; 'neath whose corrupting stream Prophet and Priest and Saint have sunk o'erwhelm'd, And with unnumbered millions found, alas ! Perdition's deepest, darkest, direst hell ? Nay, Christian ! startle not; no sceptic's sneer ; Or scowl of infidel, or jest profane, Is couch'd beneath the queries now proposed. We take with firm confiding trust and love The sacred volume, and revere the page Whose hallowed verities unfold to man His nature, origin and destiny. We joyously adore and venerate The God of Heaven and earth, and lowly how Before his throne, as suppliants for his grace ; With faith unfeigned we take salvation's cup, And call upon the name of Him by whom Redemption's price was paid for all our race. It is because we thus revere God's word, And venerate our Father's holy name, And cling with faith and love to Jesus' cross, That we would seek to wipe away The stain, which infidels would be well pleased to view Upon the mirror of Eternal Truth.—English Publication. 166 TRIAL OF JOHN BURNETT. SCHOHARIE OYER AND TERMINER: TRIAL OF JOHN BURNETT FOR THE MURDER OF GEORGE SORNBERGER. Hon. Amasa J. Parker, Circuit Judge. Solomon Pratt Sworn—I keep a tavern; the prisoner was there on the 24th of March last,G eorge Sornherger was there also. They drank together at my house; they left my house together; I saw the body of Sornherger next when they were holding the inquest; Sornherger staggered some when he left. Jacob Sanford. I saw Sornherger fall near Franklinton, and he pulled Burnett over with him. Michel Sanford, the counsel for the defence, remarked— " I harbor no enmity against Solomon Pratt, neither would I utter a word of reproach to wound his feelings or injure his character. I have been personally acquainted with him for a number of years, and believe him to be a good citizen and a worthy neighbor, as he is esteemed to be in his own commu- nity. But when, hereafter, he deals out to his fellows, RUM, let him remember that his traffic produced this unhappy result; hastened Sornl)erger, unwarned, to the tribunal of his Maker— deprived his wife of her chosen companion, her children of their earthly prolector, and brought this prisoner, if he be executed, to his untimely doom." " It is an unrighteous law that commissions one class of men to deal out to another class an agent to produce crime, while at the same time it provides prisons, and affixes penal- ties to punish all such offences committed. / hate this law, and its miserable effects have led me for twenty years past to raise my voice in behalf of temperance. THESE LAND- LORDS THAT DEAL OUT THE LIQUID POISON, ARE THEMSELVES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRIMES OF THEIR VICTIMS, AND IF THEIR LITTLE BURNING HELLS WERE SHUT UP, MAN MIGHT GO TO HEA- VEN. Yes, the lawyers might plough, the clerks hoe, and the judges preach, if rum was banished from the land. The WORDS OF WISDOM. 167 murderer is drunk—his victim is drunk; and ofttimes the jury and those assigned to try the prisoner are drunk. This mighty source of misery and evil is ghastly apparent every where, and notwithstanding the scene before us, and all that is daily and constantly experienced, there will still be found those disposed to continue its traffic." Verdict, Guilty; Sentence, to be hung by the neck in the jail at Schenectady, on Tuesday, the 14th July next,—AND WAS SO HUNG. WORDS OF WISDOM FROM GREAT AND WISE MEN. Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, in a letter to me wrote years since : "Alcohol taken as a beverage, is always injurious in proportion to the quantity taken and the frequency of its use. " Its use is therefore not only inexpedient as an injurious example, but is morally wrong, both as it endangers health, and exposes to the insidious dominion of a deadly habit, and countenances its production and use with all its sweeping desolations and woes. " The use of alcohol, therefore, as a beverage, is in my judgment, both inexpedient as an example, and morally wrong as a violation of the obligation, to us^ all lawful means to preserve our own and the life of our neighbor." President Wayland in an address says: "Can it be right for me to derive my living from that which is debasing the minds and ruining the souls of my neighbors ? Would it be right for me to derive my living by selling poison or propagating the plague around me—or from the sale of a druo- which produced misery and madness : from that which destroyed, forever, the happiness of the domestic circle— which is filling the land with women and children in a condi- tion far more deplorable than that of widows and orphans : from that which is known to be the cause of nearly all the crimes which are perpetrated against society : which causes nearly all the pauperism which exists, and which the rest of the community are obliged to pay for ; and which accomplishes all these at once, and which continues to do it without ceasing? " Do you not know that the liquors you are selling will pro- 168 WORDS OF WISDOM. duce these results ? Do you not know that 999 gallons pro- duce these effects, for one that is used innocently ? I ask, would it be right, then, for me to sell poison, on the ground that there was one chance in a thousand that the person would not die of it ? " Do you say you are not responsible for the acts of your neighbors ? Is this clearly so ? Is not he who knowingly fur- nishes a murderer with a weapon, considered as an accomplice ? Is not he who navigates a slave ship considered as a pirate ? " If these things be so (and that they are who can dispute), I ask you, my respected fellow citizens, what is to be done ? Let me ask, Is not this trade altogether wrong ? Why, then, should you not abandon it altogether ? If any man think otherwise, and choose to continue it, I have but one word to say. My brother, when you order a cargo of intoxicating drink, think how much misery you are imp)orting into the community. As you store it up, think how many curses you are heaping up together against yourself. As you roll it out of your warehouse, think how manj families each cask will ruin. Let your thoughts then revert to your own fireside, your wife and little ones ; look upward to Him who judgeth righteously, and ask yourself, my brother, in His presence, before whom we must one dav be judged, is Tnis right ? " "THE GREAT DISCOVERY," savs a European writer, " HAS AT LENGTH COME FORTH LIKE THE LIGHT OF A NEW DAY, THAT THE MODERATE CONSUM- ERS OF INTOXICATING DRINKS, ARE THE CHIEF AGENTS IN PROMOTING AND PERPETUATING DRUNKENNESS." On whose mind this great truth first rose, is not known. Whoever he was, whether humble or great, peace to his memory. He has done more for the world than he who enriched it with a continent ; and posterity, to the remotest generations, shall walk in the light he has thrown around them. Had it not been for him, Americans and Euro- peans might have continued to countenance the moderate ordinary use of a substance, whose most moderate ordinary use is temptation and danger ; and amidst a flood of prejudice and temptation, urged onward by themselves, they would have made rules against drunkenness like ropes of sand, to be burst and buried by the coming wave. " Temperance Societies," he says, " have only made America truly the new world." THE LITTLE GOLDEN-HAIRED BOY AND HIS ELDER BROTHER. founded on fact. There were in a once happy family, two brothers — a pro- mising youth approaching manhood, and his brother, a little lad, with golden ringlets falling over his neck and shoulders. They loved each other dearly. The little brother had a patch of ground set off for him in the garden. One day, his elder brother was decoyed into a grog shop near at hand, and per- suaded by the keeper to take a drink of his "firewater." This little took immediate effect on his brain, and he was tempted to take a little more and still a little more, and then he turned for his home. Passing through the garden, the first one he met was his little brother with his hoe in hand cultivating his little garden. Prompted by the alcohol within him, the elder brother made some brutal remark, to which his little brother made a reply, which increased the flame rum had already kindled within him. In a fury he wrenched the hoe from the little one's hand, and with a single blow laid him dead at his feet. He too fell, dead drunk. The little brother waked up, doubtless in Paradise. The elder brother awakened to find himself in chains. " Why am I here and thus? " was his first exclamation. At the moment, he was unconscious of his crime. It is not necessary to describe the horror and agony of this miserable victim of the rum dealer. He waa 15 170 the little golden-haired boy. tried for the murder of his little golden-haired brother and hung. Question.—Was this youth the only guilty person deserving punishment? Let the children of District and Sunday Schools decide this question. Judges and Juries may be enlightened by their decision. NOTE BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK STATE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, On giving publicity to the controversy called forth by the publication of DR. SEWALL'S PLATES, exhibiting the effects of intoxicating liquors on the human stomach, from health to death by delirium tremens. (See page —.) The Executive Committee agree with Prof. Dean, that the line which divides temperate from intemperate drinking, " has not yet been drawn." According to Dr. Sewall, the taking " a glass of mint sling in the morning, of toddy at night, or two or three glasses of Madeira at dinner, is (in common parlance), termed tempe- rate drinking, and as connected with Plate 2, in his work. According to the London Press, the " Standard," the taking of half a dozen glasses of wine, a glass of brandy and water, or two glasses of ale daily, is temperate drinking. According to Dr. Hun, the drinking just so much as pro- motes the comfort and well-being of an individual, at any par- ticular time, of which each person must be his own judge, is TEMPERATE DRINKING. E. C. Delavan maintains (as Dr. Hun remarks), that there is no such thing as temperate drinking; that alcohol in all its forms is poisonous; that alcoholic drinks, when taken (in health), are always injurious; consequently there can be no temperance in the use of these drinks (as a beverage in health,) any more than of arsenic; or in other words, all use (as a beverage in health), is abuse. Others, there are, whose definition wTould include a much greater quantity than either the first or second of the pre- ceding definitions predicated on a fixed quantity is safer (and safer because the quantity is fixed, however frightful that quantity may be), that a definition predicated on a moveable scale, capable of a progressive adjustment, from the first inceptive sip, to the deep potations of the confirmed drunkard; a definition suited to every stage of inebriety, and which imposes no restraint on either youth or manhood, at any stage through the whole descent of that traveled road from total abstinence, through moderate drinking-, quite to drunkenness. DEMORALIZATION OF THE REBEL ARMIES. Those who study carefully every sign showing the condition of the rebel confederacy, that they may judge better of the time of its approaching downfall, will do well to read atten- tively the extract which we make prominent here.—New York Times, Oct. loth, 1864. [From the Richmond Enquirer, Oct. 6th, 1864.] " Do you ask for an explanation of these rapidly occurring disasters in a portion of the State where the Confederates until the 19th ult., never suffered defeat? It is simply and easily given. We have two enemies to contend with in the valley, one of whom has never been beaten since Noah drank too much wine and lay in his tent. These enemies are the Federal Army and John Barley Corn. Sherman has been largely reinforced, and the valley is running with apple brandy. Here is the key to our reverses : Officers of high position, yes, of very high position, have, to use an honest English word, been drunk, too drunk to command themselves, much less an army, a division, a brigade, or a regiment. And when officers in high command are in the habit of drinking to excess, we may be sure their pernicious example will be fol- lowed by those in lower grades. The cavalry forces that had been operating in the valley and flitting hither and thither along the Potomac and Shenandoah, were already demoralized, and since their last visit to Maryland, they have been utterly worthless. They were in the habit of robbing friend and foe alike. They have been known to strip Virginian women of all they had—widows whose sons were in the army—and then burn their houses." Remarks.—When will the world, especially the Christian part of it, learn the great truth, that all use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage, is abuse. Talk of " excess " in the use DEMORALIZATION OF THE REBEL ARMIES. 173 of a poison ? How preposterous ! How fatal to true temper- ance is such a belief. About thirty years since, Lieut. Gen. Scott said to me, I had rather march at the head of 5,000 thorough total abstinence men, against 20,000 topers or drink- ers of strong drink, than against 20,000 topers, with 20,000 topers. This government now, by laws of Congress, allow no spirit rations in the army or navy. How far our recent victo- ries can be attributed to this prohibition, Lieut. Gen. Grant can tell better than I. EDWARD C. DELAVAN. October 18th, 1864. FRANKLIN A WATER DRINKER. " My companion at the press," says Franklin, speaking of his life as a journeyman printer in London, " drank every day a pint of strong beer before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom, but it was necessary he sup- posed to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer,- could only be in proportion to the grain or flour dis- solved in the water of which it was made ; that there was more flour in a penny's worth of bread; and therefore, if he could eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on however, and had four or five shillings sterling to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor, an expense which I was free from ; and thus these poor devils keep themselves alwaxjs under. (See Dr. Franklin's Life, written by himself.) Remarks.—Dr. Franklin was not a " charlatan," he was not " a fanatic," he was not a man to teach "fallacies," but great truths. It is said the people of England drink enough strong beer yearly to float the whole British navy. There is no per- manent strength gained in the use of strong beer or any kind of intoxicating drink. Their use, even in the greatest mode- ration, tends to weakness, disease, misery, poverty and prema- ture death. "Perhaps," says the New York Observer, the best definition of the brink of ruin, is the brink of the goblet." E. C. D. No. 12. LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN TO GOVERNOR KING. -------------•<►*<>.------------- Office New York State Temperance Society, > Albany, N. Y., January 21st, 1857. \ To His Excellency, John A. King, Governor of the State of New York: Dear Sir—Your elevation to the high and responsible station of the Chief Magistrate of the Empire State, so greatly multiplies your influence over all classes and ages of your fellow-citizens, that I confess myself desirous that your sympathies and active co-operation should be enlisted on the side of the cause of Temperance. With this motive, I take the liberty to ask you to read this communication, which cites a part of the proofs that this movement has already achieved very considerable results for the public good. I lay these facts before you with more encouragement and hope, because I am of the impression that, to statements which are honestly submitted, you will listen with candor, even when you are not prepared to endorse the reasoning and inferences which accompany them. It is by calm and kind appeals to the judgments and consciences of men, that so many, both of the humble and the great, have been brought to advocate and support the cause of Abstinence and Prohibition. And it is on such means that the friends of the cause should rely to bring distinguished public men, like your Excellency, among the number. 176 LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION ON CRIME IN NEW YORK. When some of our opponents survey the field as it is now, they say that there never was more selling in the State than at present, and that therefore all the efforts of Temperance men have wrought no good, but have made even matters worse. But this is not fair. They should revert to the period when the Prohibitory Law was in force, by which the commitments for crime in this State were reduced two-fifths from the number under the License Law. The operations of the Prohibitory Law were such, that during the six months after it came in force, there were in nine counties but 2898 commitments for crime, compared with 4960 in the same counties during the same period under the License Law. The fearful and sudden increase in drunkenness since that law was laid prostrate, so far from proving that the efforts of Temperance men are of no avail, only demonstrates the deplorable effects of thwarting those efforts. For if that law had been sustained by the Court of Appeals, as it had already been by a majority of the Judges of the Supreme Court, what a vast abatement would it by this time have wrought in Intemperance, Pauperism and Crime ! And perhaps the disastrous consequences which resulted from annulling that law were necessary to work a complete conviction of the wisdom and policy of Prohibition. But the enactment, and the temporary enforcement of the Prohibitory Law in this State, and the enactment and per- manent enforcement of such a law in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and other States, is only one of the fruits of the Temperance Reform. It was stated by the Executive Committee of this Society, in their Report* to the Meeting on the 18th of December, that "during the twenty-nine years since your Society was organized, such a reformation has been wrought in the habits of the civilized world as has never before been witnessed in the same length of time." I think that facts will fully bear out this statement. LIQUORS ON THE TABLE AND SIDE-BOARD. 1. When the Temperance Reform began, thirty years ago, ♦See Prohibitionist for December, 1856, p. 90, vol. iii. TO GOVERNOR KING. 177 every family who could afford it had intoxicating liquors on the table and side-board. These included not only wine, but brandy and rum. Every guest and every caller was in- vited to drink, and it was about as uncivil not to drink as not to invite to drink. In this respect the usages of society have undergone a striking change. The family tables which have liquors are now the exception. In many of these cases they are furnished only when guests are present, and the liquors are almost universally limited to wines. DRINKING USAGES AMONG FARMERS. 2. Hardly a farm in the land was worked without spirits ; and such a case was a matter of remark, and was pointed to as an evidence of niggardliness in the owner. It would now be a matter of unfavorable remark, if a farmer should furnish his workmen with intoxicating liquors. Not one in a thou- sand, if one in ten thousand does it. 3. Every farmer, having an orchard, had a cider mill, or used his neighbor's. Cider was as plenty in the farmer's cellar, as water in his well ; and it was drank in place of water by men, women and children. The falling off in the use of cider is, of itself, a striking and conclusive proof of the revolution which the Temperance Reform has wrought in the drinking usages of society. 4. Intoxicating liquors were almost universally brought into our workshops. Now, almost never. AMONG SAILORS AND TRAVELERS. 5. Time was when nearly every merchant vessel which sailed on the ocean, the rivers or lakes, furnished spirit rations to the men. I doubt if any do so now. This change is very marked as to fishery and whaling ships ; a class of facts which, a mutual friend informs me, your Exceliency is well acquainted with. 6. When the ocean steamships began to cross the Atlantic, their tables were supplied with spirits as free as water. This was the case in the Great Western, when I crossed in her, in one of her earliest voyages, in 1839. When off Great Britain the passengers held a meeting (Lord Lennox in the chair), and, to the number of one hundred and twenty, signed a petition to the owners, at Bristol, requesting them to discon- 178 LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN tinue this custom. It happened, to the undersigned, to be appointed to present said petition. I did so ; and the liquors disappeared thereafter from the table. I believe every steam- ship now adopts the same rule. 7. At the period referred to, there was not a hotel table or steamboat table at which ardent spirits were not furnished free. It would have been considered as unfurnished, as if it was without bread or salt. Now there is not a public table in the land where intoxicating liquor is furnished gratuitously. And probably not one person out of twenty, at our public tables, calls for such liquors. REFORMATION OF THE DRUNKARD. 8. When the reform began, it was thought that moderation would save the drunkard. Since that time, even temperance advocates have supposed that the avoidance of ardent spirits would save him. Now it is pretty generally admitted, on all hands, that the drunkard is safe only when he abstains entirely from all liquors, wines included. It being admitted that abstinence is of vital consequence to the drunkard, it follows that it is the duty of others to abstain, so as not only to remove every temptation, but to strengthen him by the force of example. 9. The testimony of convicts that their crime began with drink ; and of drunkards generally, that they learned the habit from their parents, or from the example of professing Christians, have united with science to impress upon all parents, and all good men, the solemn conviction that as Abstinence is the only safe practice for themselves, so it is the only proper example for others. PUBLIC SENTIMENT AS TO THEIR HEALTHFULNESS. 10. The belief that all use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is injurious, and never beneficial, has pretty generally taken the place of the idea that the moderate use of it is safe, and almost entirely of the error that such liquors are essen- tial to health as a beverage. 11. Since the Temperance agitation commenced, the most eminent physicians of this and other countries have de- clared by thousands that intoxicating liquors are not only unnecessary as a beverage, but positively injurious. That TO GOVERNOR KING. 179 6 ^en in sickness it is rarely necessary; while in health it is always injurious, impairing the functions of the brain, the stomach, and indeed the whole human organism.* IN CONNECTION WITH RELIGIOUS SOLEMNITIES. 12. Thirty years ago, liquors were brought forward as a matter of course, at weddings, at christenings, and even at funerals. After burial, the friends returned to the house of the mourners to drink. Now intoxicating liquors are the ex- ception at weddings, seldom furnished at christenings, and almost never at funerals. 13. It used to be thought that the Bible favored the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. Now the idea is ex- tensively prevalent that where the Bible approves of wine as a beverage, it means the unintoxicating wine of the cluster, the press, and the vat, while intoxicating wine is condemned as " the mocker." 14. When fifteeen years ago I instituted an inquiry as to the kind of wine, intoxicating or unintoxicating, which it was proper to be used at the Communion, great numbers of church members were sorely troubled for fear of harm tothe solemn rites of Religion. Very many journals, both religious and political, denounced the movement. Within a few months I have caused, on my own responsibility, some 20,000 pamphlets to be issued on the same subject, and not one word of disapprobation has yet reached me. HABITS AND SENTIMENTS OF THE CLERGY. 15. An aged Divine, now living, well acquainted with the clergy in Albany and vicinity, once drew my attention to the fact that, some thirty years ago, every clergyman when he * Since this letter was written, the following resolution, which goea beyond any expression which has heretofore emanated from any large body of the Faculty, was passed unanimously by the Medical Society of the State of New York, 4th February, 1857 : " Resolved—That in view of the ravages made upon the morals, health and property of tho people of this State by the use of Alcoholic drinks, it is the opinion of this Medical Society that the moral, sanitary and pecuni- ary condition of the State would be promoted by the passage of a Prohi- bitory Liquor Law." . ., For a detailed account of this important event in the Temperance world, and which, strange to say, was not even mentioned in any newspaper report of the society's proceedings, see the Prohibitionist for March, 1857, vol. iv., p. 20. 180 LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN made his pastoral visits was invited to drink. If he visited twenty of his parishioners, he was invited to drink, and some- times did drink, twenty times. The same Divine found that fifty per cent, of the clergy, within a circuit of fifty miles, died drunkards.* Now it is only a small proportion of the clergy who drink a drop; and those who do drink show themselves extremely sensitive when the fact is alluded to in print, as if they regarded it as a reflection upon their standing as Minis- ters of the Gospel. 16. It is thirty years since, at a large assembly of the Ministers of the Gospel, in New England, one of their number, impressed with the evils of the Drink-System, urged them to adopt a resolution pledging themselves to abstain—not from wines—but from Ardent Spirits, while at the convention. It failed. These pious and devoted clergymen could not see why they should be called upon to give up a "good creature of God." Now there are vast religious bodies, who, were they to see one of their ministers drink intoxicating liquors, would be affected almost as much as if they were to hear him swear. FASHION--THE PRESS. 17. Though few of the rich and fashionable have openly professed adherence to the Temperance cause, yet many now express their sympathy with it and are beginning to aid it pecuniarily, as a movement which inures to the public good. *A writer in the New York Observer questions the correctness of the statement of an aged clergyman in Albany to Mr. Delavan, that a minister of former days was exposed in twenty visits in a day to twenty strong drinks, and that fifty per cent, of the ministers in a circuit of fifty miles were drunkards. As to the first, every man living, who was in the ministry in 1820, knows it was true. Good Dr. Fisher said, in conversing on this subject a little before his death, that it was the greatest wonder he was not a drunkard; ho was in his early ministry so forced to drink, lest he should, by refusal, offend his parishioners. The mug of cider or brandy sling were brought out at every house. As to the proportion of intemperate ministers, this is, no doubt, in general, incorrect; though it was not, as can be con- firmed by men living as far back as 1810, in some of our cities. And there was no reason why it should not be so. Ministers have the same flesh and blood and nerves with other men; and if they will drink poison, why should they not suffer I " Can a minister take fire in his bosom and not be burned! Can he walk on hot coals and his feet not be burned?" Thanks be to Him who takes care of his church, that the ministry have been pulled from the fire; though sad it is, that some are yet trifling with it, and are boasting how strong they are.—Journal of the American Temperanct Union. TO GOVERNOR KING. 181 Many of our most distinguished citizens have lately given large social entertainments without wine ; and this is not so significant, as that public opinion sustains and applauds it. 18. There was a time when the Temperance movement was the common theme of ridicule with the press. Now there are but few journals, even those which are opposed to Prohibition, which do not approve voluntary abstinence, and which do not compliment private citizens, or public bodies, who give entertainments without intoxicating liquors. 19. The spirit-ration has been abolished in the army. I am of the impression too that it has been diminished in the navy.* MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS. 20. Before the Temperance Reform began, and while we were ignorant of the nature and effects of strong drink, Nathaniel Prime, Lynde Catlin, and others, myself among the number, formed a chartered company, with a capital of $300,000, for the manufacture of steam engines and other heavy iron work. Thinking to do good to the workmen, and further the objects of the company, we directed that strong beer should be passed, gratis, to every man two or three times a day. We soon found that our work was badly done, almost every contract was in consequence litigated in the courts, and the company failed; by which failure the company not only sunk the whole capital of $300,000, but (to save their own credit) ten of the stockholders contributed ten thousand dol- lars each, to pay off further liabilities, of which eight thou- sand dollars of my contribution (including my whole stock) proved a dead k>ss. On a review of the whole subject, I firmly believe that this catastrophe is mainly ascribable to the unfortunate drinking habits which, from the best of motives, we ourselves encouraged. 21. Another company, formed to manufacture nearly the same kind of article, and who employed about 100_ workmen, had their attention drawn to the evils of strong drink among operatives. One of the partners drew up a Total Abstinence Pledge, signed it, and induced nearly every workman to adopt the same principle. When the step was taken, hardly one of the workmen was beforehand in the world, and many were in debt. After four years upon the Temperance princi- 16 * Now in the navy. 182 LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN pie, none were in debt, and many had bought lots of land, and erected cottages for their families; and one of the part- ners told me that the aggregate amount saved by these 100 men during the four years since they abandoned strong drink, would make capital enough to carry on the business operations of the company. EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON NATIONAL WEALTH. 22. A manufacturer who employed 300 hands, informed me that after they all, or nearly all, adopted the Total Abstinence principle, the prosperity of the establishment was vastly promoted, and that their improved steadiness, fidelity and style of workmanship were as good to him as a protective duty of twenty-five per cent. At this rate, what sums have accrued to the National wealth from the adoption of Temper- ance principles by the hundreds of thousands of abstainers ! 2o. The late Abbott Lawrence, that merchant prince and public benefactor, and late United States Minister to the Court of St. James, was asked before he died, what had occasioned the great increase of wealth and prosperity in the United States? He instantly replied: "Our prosperity, in my opinion, is greatly owing to the Temperance Reformation. The influence of this movement is felt in the workshop, on the farm, and in every branch of human industry. Before the Temperance Reform was started, a vast number of the farms in New England were mortgaged for rum bills,—now hardly one." 24. Until the subject of Temperance was agitated, the frauds of the liquor traffic were not suspected. All liquors were supposed to be what they pretended 'to be. Now the matter of adulteration, though but partially understood yet, is the theme of common conversation even among drinkers. 25. When the Temperance Reform commenced in this State there were about 1100 flour mills, and more than that number of distilleries. The population has about doubled since that time, and now there are 1464 flour mills and only 88 distilleries. It must be admitted, however, that the distilleries now in operation are on a much larger scale than the average of those of the former period. CLASSES OF DEALERS WHO HAVE LEFT THE TRAFFIC. 26. Of the great number of native citizens in the United TO GOVERNOR KING. 183 States who used to sell intoxicating liquors, a vast number have left the business. The Temperance agitation has edu- cated them to regard the traffic as immoral and degrading. It is found in the great cities that seven out of eight of all who sell liquor are foreign emigrants. The great majority of those who now sell liquor in America are a proof, not that the Temperance Reform does nothing, but of what the moral sense of our countrymen would have been on this subject, at this time, had this reform never been agitated. 27. Formerly, church members and church officers of all our churches used to be engaged in the traffic; now, vast bodies of them denounce the traffic as an immorality; and the number of church members, American born citizens, who make or sell liquor, is probably not one to five hundred of the former proportion. 28. Witness, as a proof of the effects of the Temperance Reform, the growing idea that liquor when offered for sale, as a beverage, is a nuisance to be abated like any other nuisance. 29. What but the Temperance agitation has changed the policy of so many States; substituting laws aiming at Prohibition, in the place of laws which allowed rum to be sold by the authority of the State ? PROHIBITION APPLIED TO THE DRUNKARD. 30. Not only is the moderation theory now abandoned, and Total Abstinence held to be essential to the refor- mation of the drunkard, but Physicians,* Clergymen and Judges agree that Asylums should be established by the State for the resort of inebriates, where no strong drinks can be procured—which, as far as the drunkard is concerned (of whom there are over 50,000 in the State of New York), is an emphatic endorsement of the humanity and necessity of pro- hibition. The advocates of Temperance extend the same principle, and by a general enactment, prohibiting the sale of liquors throughout the State, aim to remove the temptation * The following resolution was adopted by the Medical Society of the State of New York, on the 4th of February, 1817: " Resolved, That this Society commend the object sought to be attained by the project for an Asylum for Inebriates, to the favor and earnest sup- port, not only of the Legislature of the State but to the public at large." 184 LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN. from all who have this habit partially formed, as well as those who have it fully formed, and so, by the united influence of moral and legal suasion, aim to create such an asylum in every household in the land. These facts and illustrations might be greatly extended, but I forbear. Enough has been said to indicate a vast improve- ment in the drinking usages of society. THE NEXT STEP IN THE REFORM. But it will be said, if the Temperance agitation has done so much, why not go right on in the old way, without a re- sort to legislation. The same question might be asked of gambling, of lotteries and of duelling. A stage is at last reached, where legislative enactments are essential. Not that moral suasion is to be abandoned, but, in addition to this, the public sentiment regarding these evils must be embodied into statutory enactments. Of this, those who have used moral suasion most, and witn the greatest success, are the most profoundly convinced. After obtaining millions of signatures to the Total Abstinence Pledge, Ireland was ripe for Prohibi- tion. But it was not applied. The golden opportunity was lost; and the consequence is, that nearly as much liquor is drank in Ireland now, as before Father Mathew commenced his remarkable labors. The language of this beloved and re- nowned Apostle of Temperance, penned a year or two before his death, and published in the Prohibitionist for July, 1855, should teach a solemn lesson to the world on the subject of Temperance: " The question of prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits, and the many other intoxicating drinks which are to be found in our country, is not new to me; the principle of Prohibition seems to me to be the only safe and certain remedy for the evils of Intemperance. This opinion has been strengthened and. confirmed by the hard labor of more than twenty years in the Temperance cause. I rejoice in the welcome intelligence of the formation of a Maine Law Alliance, which I trust will be the means under God of destroying this fruitful source of Crime and Pauperism." The friends of Prohibition in Great Britain are now making up for lost time; they are pressing on steadily, firmly and TO GOVERNOR KING. 185 perseveringly, and the triumph of Prohibition is only a ques- tion of time. OUGHT NOT EVERY GOOD MAN TO CO-OPERATE ? When the Temperance Societies began, the general view of religious men was, that the work should be done through the churches. I submit that, in the main, what has been done, has been done by the churches. The Temperance Reform originated in the churches. If I may refer to myself in this connection, it was a devout and learned minister of the Gospel who converted me to the movement. If, since that time, I have been enabled to do more in my way than some of my fellow citizens, it is only because Providence has placed me in circumstances to do so. But it is the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous, and the widow's mite, offered in faith, which points to the secret of the success of temperance. Nor can I ever review the history of this benign and arduous enterprise without being deeply and profoundly penetrated with the con- viction, that the great motive power, from the first and always, has been the Grace and Spirit of Almighty God, as shed abroad in the hearts of thousands of His pious servants, both men aud women, and who are to be found in all religious de- nominations throughout the Christian world. It is the religious sentiment of the country; it is the divine principle of self-denial, taught by our blessed_ Savior, which has wrought whatever has been done for this reform, and which I have ever regarded as the handmaid of Religion. There are good men who still think this work should be re- stricted to the churches, or perhaps to their own particular church. I put it to their hearts, would they go back to where we were thirty years ago ? Would they have undone what has been done ? And ought not every believer in Christian- ity, to whatever particular church he may belong, to unite as one man—in pressing forward with yet greater vigor, with the united energy of faith and prayer and works, by his example, bis influence, and by contributions of his substance—the cause of personal Abstinence and legislative Prohibition ? And if this is true of the Christian in private life, how important to the poor drunkard, to his wife, his children, and the whole community, do such duties become, when, as in the case of your Excellency, the private citizen is clothed by the people with 186 LETTER FROM MR. DELAVAN TO GOV. KING. great authority and official power! So sacred and important are the interests at stake, and so great is now your Excel- lency's influence for good, that I feel that I have not exceeded the privilege of your humblest fellow-citizen in attempting to enlist your personal and official cooperation on the side of a cause which has been so signally approved and blessed of God, and which redounds so palpably to the physical, the moral and the religious interests of the human family. I remain, with great respect, your Excellency's friend and obedient servant, EDWARD C. DELAVAN, President New York State Temperance Society. No. 13. TEMPERANCE LECTURE No, XL BY REV. DR. E. NOTT, PRESIDENT UNION COLLEGE, SCHENECTADT. RECAPITULATION—GENERAL APPEAL IN BEHALF OF TEMPERANCE. Appeal to Parents—to Youth—to Women—Conclusion. In the preceding lectures, we have shown that a kind of wine has existed from great antiquity, which was injurious to health and subversive of morals; that these evils, since the introduction of distillation, have been greatly increased; that half the lunacy, three-fourths of the pauperism, and five-sixths of the crime with wdiich the nation is visited, is owing to intemperance; that there are believed to be five hundred thousand drunkards in the republic, and that thou- sands die of drunkenness annually. We have also shown that drunkenness results from moderate drinking, and that drunkenness must continue, by a necessity of nature, as long as habitual moderate drinking is continued; that it is not the drinking of water or milk, or any other necessary or nutritive beverage, but of intoxicating liquors only, that produces drunkenness; that as the existing system of moderate drinking occasions all the drunkenness that exists, so that system must be abandoned, or its expense in muscle and sinew and mind, provided for by this, and all future generations; that even moderate drinking is now more dangerous than formerly, because intoxicating drinks are more deadly—to the poison of alcohol, generated by fer- mentation, other poison having been added by drugging, 188 LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. an1 that alike to intoxicating liquors, whether fermented or distilled. We have enumerated the kinds of poison made use of in the products of the still and of the brew-house, and met the objection that the use of wine was sanctioned by the Bible, by showing that there were different kinds of wine, some of which were good and some bad, and that the former only were commended in the Bible; that though it were allowable to use pure wines in Palestine, it would not follow that it was allowable to use mixed wineshere, where intcnser poisons exist, and where the use of wine leads to the use of brandy, and the use of brandy to drunkenness: We have shown that even in Palestine it was good not to drink wine, when it caused a brother to offend, and there- fore not good elsewhere, and especially here, and at the present time, Avhen the tremendous evils of intemperance in some classes of community render total abstinence befitting in all classes, in conformity to that great law of love which Jesus Christ promulgated, and in conformity to which the apostles of Jesus Cbrist acted, and the disciples of Jesus Christ are bound to act. We have shown that the books of Nature and Revelation both proceeded from God, and both contain, though with unequal degrees of clearness, an expression of his will: that the import of the one is discovered by reading and meditation, of the other by observation and experiment; that in this latter oracle mankind are distinctly taught, that aliments restore the waste of the human organism, but that stimulants impair the sensibility on which they operate, and hence that the latter are not intended for ha- bitual use, that they who so use intoxicating liquors violate an established law of nature, and that the drunkenness, disease and death, which result from such use, are the penalty which follows, by the appointment of God, the vio- lation of that law; that God wills the happiness of his creatures, and when the authority of the Bible is plead in behalf of any usage that leads to misery, it may be known that the Bible is plead in error in behalf of such usage; that in the present instance, and so far as the wines of commerce are concerned, to appeal to the Bible as authoritj7, is absurd ; that the Bible knows nothing and teaches no- thing directly, in relation to these wines of commerce—the LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. 189 same being either a brandied or drugged article, never in use in Palestine; that in relation to tliese spurious articles the book of nature must alone be consulted, and that being consulted, their condemnation will be found on many a page, inscribed in characters of wrath. In the view of these and other truths, we have addressed ourselves to the manufacturer and vender of these legalized poisons; and there are yet others to whom, in the view of the same truths, we would, in conclusion, address ourselves. Fathers, mothers, heads of families, if not prepared at this late hour to change your mode of life, are you not pre- pared to encourage the young, particularly your children, to change theirs ? Act as you may, 3rourselves, do you not desire that they should act the part of safety ? Can you not tell them, and truly tell them, that our manner of life is attended with less peril than your own? Can you not tell them, and truly tell them, that however innocent the use even of pure wine may be, in the estimation of those who use it, that its use in health is never necessary; that excess is always injurious, and that in the habitual use of even such wine there is always danger of excess; that of the brandied and otherwise adulterated wines in use, it cannot be said, in whatever quantity, that they are innocent; that the temptation to adulterate is very great, detection is very difficult, and that entire safety is to be found only in total abstinence ? Can you not truly tell them this ? Will you not tell them this ? And having told them, should they, in obedience to your counsel, relinquish at once the use of all intoxicating liquors, would their present condition, you yourselves being judges, would their present condition be less secure, or their future prospects less full of promise, on that account ? Or would the remembrance, that the stand they took was taken at your bidding, either awaken in your bosoms misgivings now, or regrets hereafter ? Especially, would it do this as life declines, and you approach your final dissolution and last account? Then, when standing on the verge of that narrow isthmus, which separates the future from the past, and connects eternity with time; then, when casting the last lingering look back upon that world to which you are about to bid adieu forever, will the thought that you are to leave behind you a family trained to 190 LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. temperance not only, but pledged also to total abstinence, will that thought, then, think you, plant one thorn in the pillow of sickness, or add one pang to the agonies of death ? 0! no, it is not this thought, but the thought of dying and leaving behind a family of profligate children, to nurture other children no less profligate, in their turn to nurture others,—thus transmitting guilt and misery to a remote posterity; it is this thought, and thoughts like this, in con- nection with another thought, suggested by those awful words, " For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visit- ing the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me;"—it is thoughts like these, and not the thought of leaving behind a family pledged to total abstinence, that will give to life's last act a sadder coloring', and man's last hour a denser darkness. Between these two conditions of the dying, if held within our offer, who of us would hesitate ? Ye children of moderate drinking parents; children of so many hopes, and solicitudes and prayers; the sin of drun- kenness apart, the innocence of abstinence apart, here are two classes of men, and two plans of life, each proffered to your approbation, and submitted for your choice: The one class use intoxicating liquor, moderately indeed, still they use intoxicating liquor, in some or many of its forms; the other class use it in none of them: The one class, in consequence of such use of intoxicating liquor, furnish all the drunkenness, three-fourths of all the pauperism and five- sixths of all the crime, under the accumulating and accu- mulated weight of which our country already groans. Yes, in consequence of such restricted use of intoxicating liquors, the one class pays an annual tribute in muscle and sinew, in intellect and virtue, aye, in the souls of men; a mighty tribute, embodied in the persons of inebriates, taken from the ranks of temperate drinkers and delivered over to the jail, the mad-house, the house of correction, and even the house of silence! The other class pays no such tribute; no, nor even a portion of it. The other burthens of community they share indeed, in common with their brethren; a portion of their earnings goes even to provide and furnish those abodes of woe and death, which intoxicating liquors crowd with LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. 191 inmates; but the inmates themselves are all, all trained in the society, instructed in the maxims, moulded by the cus- toms, and finally delivered up from the ranks of the oppo- site party—the moderate drinking party. Now, beloved youth, which of these two modes of life will you adopt? To which of these two classes will you attach yourselves ? Which think you is the safest, which most noble, patriotic, Christian ? In one word, which will insure the purest bliss on earth, and afford the fairest pros- pect of admission into heaven? For the mere privilege of using intoxicating liquors mode- rately, are you willing to contribute your proportion annually to people the poor-house, the prison-house, and the grave-yard? For such a privilege, are you willing to give up to death, or even to delirium-tremens, a parent this year, a wife, a child or brother or sister the next, and the year thereafter a friend or neighbor ? Are you willing to do this, and having done it, are you further willing, as a consequence, to hear the mothers', the wives', the widows', and the orphans' wailings, on account *bf miseries inflicted by a system de- liberately adopted by your choice, sustained by your exam- ple, and perpetuated by your influence? Nor to hear alone; are you willing to see also the beggar's rags, the convict's fetters, and those other and more hideous forms of guilt and misery, the product of intemperance, which liken men to demons and earth to hell ? That frightful outward desolation, apparent in the person and the home of the inebriate, is but an emblem of a still more frightful inward desolation. The comfortless abode, the sorrow-stricken family, the tattered garments, the palsied tread, the ghastly countenance and loathsome aspect, of the habitual brutal drunkard, fill us with abhorrence. We shun his presence, and shrink instinctively from his polluting touch. But what are all these sad items, which affect the outer man only, in comparison with the blighted hopes, the withered intellect, the debased propensities, the brutal appetites, the demoniac passions, the defiled con- science; in one word, in comparison with the sadder moral items which complete the frightful spectacle of a soul in ruins; a soul deserted of God, possessed by demons, and 192 LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. from which the last lineaments of its Maker's image have been utterly effaced; a soul scathed and riven, and standing forth already, as it will hereafter stand forth, frightful amid its ruins, a monument of wrath, and a warning to the uni- verse. Be not deceived, nor fear to take the dimensions of the evils that threaten, or to look that destroyer in the face, which you are about to arm yourselves against. Not the solid rock withstands forever the touch of water even, much less the living fibre that of alcohol, or those other and intenser poisons mingled with it, in those inebriating liquors of which a moiety of the nation drinks. The habit- ual use of such liquors in small quantities prepares the way for their use in larger quantities, and yet larger quan- tities progressively, till inebriation is produced. Such is the constitution of nature; it is preposterous, therefore, to calculate upon exemption. Exceptions indeed there may be; but they are exceptions merely. The rule is otherwise. If you live an habitual drinker of such liquors, you ought to calculate to die a confirmed drunkard: and that your children, and your children's children, should they follow your example, will die confirmed drunkards also. And if life shall be prolonged to them, and they so live, they will so die, unless the course of nature shall be changed. In the view of these facts and arguments which the subject before you presents, make up your minds, make up your minds deliberately, and having done so, say whether you are willing to take along with the habitual moderate use of intoxicating liquors, as bought and sold, and drank among us, the appalling consequences that must result therefrom. Are you willing to do this ? and if you are not, stop,—stop while you may, and where you can. In this descent to Hades there is no half-way house, no central resting place. The movement once commenced, is ever onward and downward. The thirst created is quenchless, the appetite induced insatiable. You may not live to com- plete the process—but this know, that it is naturally pro- gressive, and that with every successive sip from the fatal chalice, it advances, imperceptibly indeed, still it advances towards completion. Yon demented sot, once a moderate LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. 193 drinker, occupied the ground you now occupy, and looked down on former sots, as you, a moderate drinker, now look down on him, and as future moderate drinkers may yet look down on you, and wonder; "Facilis decensus averni." Let it never be forgotten that we are social beings No man liveth to himself; on the contrary, grouped together in various ways, each acts, and is acted on by others. Though living at a distance of so many generations, we feel even yet, and in its strength, the effect of the first transgression. Now, as formerly, it is the nature of vice, as well as virtue, to extend and perpetuate itself. Now, as formerly, the existing generation is giving the impress of its charac- ter to the generation which is to follow it—and now, as formerly, parents are by their conduct and their counsel, either weaving crowns to signalize their offspring in the Heavens, or forging chains to be worn by them in hell. Hearer, time is on the wing; death is at hand; act now, therefore, the part that you will in that hour approve, and reprobate the conduct you will then condemn. It has not been usual for the speaker, as it has for some others, to bespeak the influence of those who constitute the most numerous, as well as most efficient part of almost every assembly, where self-denials are called for, or ques- tions of practical duty discussed. And yet, no one is more indebted than myself to the kind of influence in question. Under God, I owe my early education, nay, all that I have been, or am, to the counsel and tutelage of a pious mother. It was, peace to her sainted spirit, it was her monitory voice that first taught my young heart to feel that there was danger in the intoxicating cup, and that safety lay in abstinence. And as no one is more indebted than myself to the kind of influence in question, so no one more fully realizes how decisively it bears upon the destinies of others. Full well I know, that by woman came the apostacy of Adam, and by woman the recovery through Jesus. It was a woman that imbued the mind and formed the character of Moses, Israel's deliverer—it was a woman that led the 17 194 LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. choir, and gave back the response of that triumphal pro- cession, which went forth to celebrate with timbrels, on the banks of the Red Sea, the overthrow of Pharoah—it was a woman that put Sisera to flight, that composed the song of Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, and judged in righteousness, for years, the tribes of Israel—it was a woman that defeated the wicked counsels of Haman, deli- vered righteous Mordecai, and saved a whole people from utter desolation. And not now to speak of Semiramis at Babylon, of Catharine of Russia, or of those Queens of England, whose joyous reign constitute the brightest periods of British history, or of her, the young and lovely, the patron of learning and morals, who now adorns the throne of the sea-girt Isles; not now to speak of these, there are others of more sacred character, of whom it were admissable even now to speak. The sceptre of empire is not the sceptre that best befits the hand of woman; nor is the field of carnage her field of glory. Home, sweet home, is her theatre of action, her pedestal of beauty, and tbrone of power. Or if seen abroad, she is seen to the best advantage, when on errands of love, and wearing her robe of mercy. It was not woman who slept during- the agonies of Geth- semane; it was not woman who denied her Lord at the palace of Caiaphas; it was not woman who deserted his cross on the hill of Calvary. But it w^as woman that dared to testify her respect for his corpse, that procured spices for embalming' it, and that was found last at night, and first in the morning, at his sepulchre. Time has neither impaired her kindness, shaken her constancy, or changed her character. Now, as formerly, she is most ready to enter, and most reluctant to leave, the abode of misery. Now, as formerly, it is her office, and well it has been sustained, to stay the fainting head, wipe from the dim eve the tear of anguish, and from the cold forehead the dew of death. This is not unmerited praise. I have too much respect for the character of woman, to use, even elsewhere, the language of adulation, and too much self-respect to use such language here. I would not, If I could, persuade those of LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. 195 the sex who hear me, to become the public, clamorous advocates of even temperance. It is the influence of their declared approbation; of their open, willing, visible exam- ple, enforced by that soft, persuasive, colloquial eloquence, which, in some hallowed retirement and chosen moments, exerts such controlling influence over the hard, cold heart of man, especially over a husband's, a son's or a brother's heart; it is this influence which we need;—an influence chiefly known by the gradual, kindly transformation of character it produces, and which, in its benign effects, may be compared to the noiseless, balmy influence of Spring, shedding, as it silently advances, renovation over every hill, and dale, and glen, and islet, and changing, throughout the whole region of animated nature, Winter's rugged and un- sightly forms, into the forms of vernal loveliness and beaut}'. No, I repeat it, I would not, if I could, persuade those of the sex who hear me, to become the public clamorous advocates of temperance. It is not yours to wield the club of Hercules or bend Achilles' bow. But, though it is not, still you have a heaven-appointed armour, as well as a heaven approved theatre of action. The look of tenderness, the eye of com- passion, the lip of entreaty, are yours; and yours, too, are the decisions of taste, and yours the omnipotence of fashion. Vou can therefore,—I speak of those who have been the favorites of fortune, and who occupy the high places of so- ciety,—you can change the terms of social intercourse and alter the current opinions of community. You can re- move, at once and forever, temptation from the saloon, the drawing-room and the dining-table. This is your empire, the empire over which God and the usages of mankind have given you dominion. Here, within these limits, and with- out transgressing that modesty which is heaven's own gift and woman's brightest ornament, you may exert a benign and kindly but mighty influence. Here you have but to speak the word, and one chief source of the mother's, the wives', and the widow's sorrows, will, throughout the circle in which you move, be dried up forever. Nor throughout that circle only. The families around you and beneath you will feel the influence of your example, descending on them in blessings like the dews of Heaven that descend on the 196 LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. mountains of Zion; and drunkenness, loathsome, brutal drunkenness, driven by the moral power of your decision, from all the abodes of reputable society, will be compelled to exist, if it exist at all, only among those vulgar and rag- ged wretches, who, shunning the society of woman, herd together in the bar-room, the oyster cellar and the grog- This, indeed, w7ere a mighty triumph, and this, at least, you can achieve. Wh}', then, should less than this be achieved ? To purify the conscience, to bind up the broken- hearted, to remove temptation from the young, to minister consolation to the aged, and kindle joy in every bosom throughout her appointed theatre of action, befits alike a woman's and a mother's agency,—and since God has put it in your power to do so much, are you willing to be respon- sible for the consequences of leaving it undone ? Are you willing to see this tide of woe and death, whose flow you might arrest, roll onward by you to posterity, increasing as it rolls forever ? 0! no, you are not, I am sure you are not; and if not, then, ere you leave these altars, lift up your heart to God, and, in his strength, form the high resolve to purify from drunkenness this city. And however elsewhere others may hesitate, and waver, and defer, and temporize, take you the open, noble stand of abstinence; and, having taken it, cause it by your words, and by your deeds, to be known on earth and told in Heaven, that mothers here have dared to do their duty, their whole duty, and that, within the precincts of that consecrated spot over which their balmy, hallowed influence extends, the doom of drunkenness is sealed. Nor mothers only; in this benign and holy enterprise, the daughter and the mother alike are interested. Ye young, might the speaker be permitted to address you, as well as your honored parents, and those teachers, their assistants, whose delightful task it is to bring forward the unfolding germs of thought, and teach the young idea how to shoot—might the speaker, whose chief concernment hitherto has been the education of the young, be permitted to address you, he would bespeak your influence, your urgent, persevering influence, in behalf of a cause so pure, LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. 197 so full of mercy, and so every way befitting your age, your sex, your character. 01 could the speaker make a lodgment, an effectual lodg- ment, in behalf of temperance, within those young, warm, generous, active hearts within his hearing, or rather within the city where it is his privilege to speak, who this side of Heaven could calculate the blessed, mighty, enduring con- sequence? Could this be done, then might the eye of angels rest with increased complacency on this commercial metropo- lis,* already signalized by Christian charity, as well as radi- ant with intellectual glory;—but then lit up anew with fire from off virtue's own altar, and thus caused to become, amid the surrounding desolation which intemperance has occasioned, more conspicuously than ever, an asylum of mercy to the wretched and a beacon light of promise to the wanderer. Then from this favored spot, as from some great central source of power, encouragement might be given and con- fidence imparted to the whole sisterhood of virtue, and a redeeming influence sent forth, through many a distant town and hamlet, to mingle with other and kindred influ- ences in effecting throughout the land, among the youth of both sexes, that moral renovation called for, and which, when realized, will be at once the earnest and the anticipa- tion of millennial glory. 0! could we gain the young,—the young who have no inveterate prejudices to combat, no established habits to overcome; could we gain the young, we might, after a single generation had passed away, shut up the dram-shop, the°bar-room and the rum selling grocery, and, by shutting these up, shut up also the poor-house, the prison-house, and one of the broadest and most frequented avenues to the charnel house. More than this, could we shut up these licensed dispensa- ries of crime, disease and death, we might abate the severity of maternal anguish, restore departed joys to con- jugal affection, silence the cry of deserted orphanage, and procure tor the poor demented suicide a respite for self- inflicted vengeance. » Philadelphia. 198 LECTURE BY DR. E. NOTT. This, the gaining of the young to abstinence, would con- stitute the mighty fulcrum on which to plant that moral lever of power, to raise a world from degradation. 0! how the clouds would scatter, the prospect brighten, and the firmament of hope clear up, could the young be gained, intoxicating liquors be banished, and abstinence with its train of blessings introduced throughout the earth. No. 14. ----------*~»----------- EXTRAC T FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE No. IX, In which he calls attention to Dr. Sewal's Diagrams, which will be found on page 20 of this work, closing with " the frightful ravings of a poor inebriate who died of the delirium tremens.'5 »♦--------- Think not that God is heard only in the book of revelation. The book of nature, as well as the book of revelation, is a book of God. Both were written by him, and hence David bound them up together, and in the 19th Psalm you will find a summary of both. "The heavens," saith he, "the heavens declare the glory of God," and having said this, he adds in unbroken continuity, " the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." These two books, which David more than thirty centuries since bound up together, have not yet been separated, and are both, with reverence, now, as formerly, to be consulted; and both, consulted on the question now at issue, return the same answer. It is the book of nature, however, with which chiefly ive are now concerned. Let us examine its contents. Let us obey its teachings. Whatever obscurity there may be elsewhere, here there is no obscurity; here there are no opposing phenomena to ex- plain—no contradictory testimony to reconcile. After a lapse 200 EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE of six thousand years, the original law of God, concerning intoxicating poisons, with its awful and unchanged penalty, stands out to view, written, on the living organism of those who drink it, in characters so broad and bold, and plain, that he who runs may read. In view of this recorded prohibition of those poisons, talk not of temperate use ; such use belongs to authorized health- ful beverage—to water, milk and wine ; I mean good, refresh- ing, unintoxicating wine, such as might have been drank in Palestine, such as was drank at Cana; even such wines, when used, are to be used temperately; and there may be times, and I think the present is such a time, when from motives of humanity as well as religion and expediency, their use should be dispensed with. But poisonous beverage, even poisonous wine, wine that in- toxicates, wine the mocker; that serpent's tooth, that adder's sting, against which the book of revelation warns, and to which warning the book of nature in accents long and loud responds ; of such wine there is no temperate use. Such wine is poisonous, and is therefore to be everywhere and at all times utterly rejected. The chalice that contains it, contains an element of death. It is not even to be received, or, having been received, is to be rejected ; and happy the youth—the man—who dashes it untasted from his hand. This is not declamation—it is not the speaker, but thy Maker, hearer, that counsels thus. That counsel, as we have said, is made apparent in ruins stamped by the ordina- tion of Jehovah in every age, in every clime, and on every organ of every human being who transgresses his published law in regard to poisons. Yes, in ruins, stamped from their first inception in the moderate drinker, to their final consum- mation in the death of the drunkard by delirium tremens. The shadowing forth of these ruins, as seen in a single organ, transferred by the pencil from the dissecting-room of tho surgeon* to the canvass of the painter, I shall now pro- ceed to exhibit and very briefly to illustrate. The organ in question is the human stomach, with its triple coatings, with its inlet for food, its outlet for chyme, its mys- terious solvent for converting the former into the latter, and * Dr. Thomas Sewal. See page 20 for diagrams. EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE. 201 its contractile power for transmitting the same (when so con- verted), through other viscera, to be absorbed in the repairing of the wastes of an ever-perishing and renovated organism. Fig. I represents the inner surface of this organ, exposed to view in its natural and healthy state—the state in which it was created, and in which it would ordinarily continue through life, but for those elements of ruin with which, by the indis- cretion of man, it is so early and often brought in contact.* Fig. II represents the changed aspect of this same organ, as it appears in the person of the temperate drinker. You perceive how that delicate and beautiful net-work of blood- vessels, almost invisible in the healthy stomach, begins to be enlarged—how the whole interior surface, irritated and in- flamed, exhibits the inception of that progressive work of death about to be accomplished. This change is effected by a well known law of nature, to wit, the rushing of the blood to any part of a sensitive texture to which any irritant is applied. You know what is the effect produced by even diluted alcohol when applied to the eye ; you know what the effect is, of holding even undiluted brandy in the mouth ; what, then, must be the effect of pouring such an exciting and corrosive poison into that delicate and vital organ, the human stomach ? Fig. Ill represents the stomach of the habitual drunkard, with its thickened walls, its distended blood-vessels, and its livid blotches, visible at irregular intervals to the eye, like the unsightly rum blossoms that overspread the countenance, in token of the havoc which disease, unseen, is making with the viscera within Fig. IV exhibits the ulcerated stomach of the habitual drunkard—with its loathsome corroding sores, eating their way through its triple lining, and gradually extending oyer the intervening spaces: all bespeaking the extent of the hid- den desolation which has already been effected. Fig. V represents the frightful stomach of the habitual drunkard, rendered still more frightful by the aggravation of a recent debauch. Its previously inflamed surface has become still more inflamed, and its livid blotches still more livid. * When this lecture was delivered, Dr. Sewal's drawings of the human Stomach were exhibited, and the text is the explanation of them severally, as then given. 202 EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT's LECTURE. Grumous blood is issuing from its pores, and its whole putrid aspect indicates that the work of death is nearly consummated. Fig. VI represents the cancerous stomach of the drunkard, or rather a cancerous ulcer in such a stomach, the coats of which stomach, as the surgeon who performed the dissection affirms, were thickened, and schirrous, and its passages so obstructed as to prevent for some time previous to death the transmission of any nutriment to the system. Fig. VII represents a stomach in which this progressive desolation is completed—it is the stomach of the maniac, the drunken maniac—as seen after death by delirium tremens, than which there is no death more dreadful,—signalized as it ever is by unearthly spectres, hydras and demons dire. It may have been the lot of some of }Tou to have witnessed such a death scene; if it has, you will bear me out in saying that no language can express its horrors. The following lines convey but a faint idea of the frightful ravings of a poor inebriate who died of delirium tremens in an asylum to which he had been removed, and who, amazed at the situation in which he found himself placed, conceived the idea that, though sane himself, the friends who had placed him there were deranged. Excited to phrenzy and haunted by this illusion— Why am I thus, the maniac cried, ConSned 'mid crazy people? Why? I am not mad—knave, stand aside! I 11 have my freedom, or I'll die. It's not for cure that here I've come— I tell thee, all I want is rum— I must have rum. Sane? yes, and have been all the while; Why, then, tormented thus? 'lis sad! Why chained, and held in duress vile? The men who brought me here were mad. I will not stay where spectres come— Let me go hence; I must have rum, I must have rum. 'Tis he ! 'tis he ! my aged sire! What has disturbed thee in thy grave? Why bend on me that eye of fire? Why torment, since thou canst not save? Back to the churchyard whence you've come! Return, return! but send me rum, 0 ! send me rum. EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE. 203 Why is my mother musing there, On that same consecrated spot Where once she taught me words of prayer? But now she hears—she heeds me not. Mute in her winding sheet she stands— Cold, cold, I feel her icy hands— Her icy hands! She's vanished; but a dearer friend— I know her by her angel smile— Has come her partner to attend, His hours of misery to beguile; Haste! haste! loved one, and set me free; 'Twere heaven to 'scape from hence to thee^ From hence to thee. She does not hear—away she flies, Regardless of the chain I wear, Back to her mansion in the skies, To dwell with kindred spirits there. Why has she gone? Why did she come? 0 God, I'm ruined! Give me rum, 0 ! give me rum. Hark! hark! for bread my children cry— A cry that drinks my spirits up; But 'tis in vain, in vain to try— 0 give me back the drunkard's cup: My lips are parched, my heart is sad—• This cursed chain! 'twill make me mad! 'Twill make me mad! It wont wash out, that crimson stain! I've scoured those spots, and made them white- Blood reappears again, Soon as morning brings the light! When from my sleepless couch I come. To see—to feel----0 ! give me rum, I must have rum. 'Twas there I heard his piteous cry, And saw his last imploring look, But steeled my heart, and bade him die— Then from him golden treasures took: Accursed treasure—stinted sum— Reward of guilt! Give—give me rum, 0 ! give me rum. Hark! still I hear that piteous wail— Before my eyes his spectre stands, And when it frowns on me, I quail; 0 ! I would fly to other lands ! EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE. But, that pursuing, there 'twould come— There's no escape ! 0 ! give me rum, 0 ! give me rum. Guard ! guard those windows—bar that door— Yonder I armed bandits see; Thejr've robbed my house of all its store, And now return to murder me; They're breaking in, don't let them come; Drive—drive them hence—but give me rum, 0 ! give me rum. I stake again? not I!—no more, Heartless, accursed gamester ! No! I staked with thee my all, before, And from thy den a beggar go. Go where? A suicide to hell! And leave my orphan children here, In rags and wretchedness to dwell—• A doom their father cannot bear. Will no one pity? no one come?— Not thou ! 0 come not, man of prayer! Shut that dread volume in thy hand— For me damnation's written there— No drunkard can in judgment stand! Talk not of pardon there revealed— No, not to me—it is too late— My sentence is already sealed; Tears never blot the book of fate. Too late! too late these tidings come; There is no hope! 0 give me rum, I must have rum. Thou painted harlot, come not here! I know thee by that lecherous look— I know that silvery voice I hear— Go home, and read God's holy book. For thee there's mercy—not for me; I'm damned already—words can't tell What sounds I hear, what sights I see! I'm sure it cant be worse in hell! See how that rug those reptiles soil! They're crawling o'er me in my bed! I feel their clammy, snaky coil On every limb—around my head— With forked tongue I see them play; I hear them hiss—tear them away! Tear them away! EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE. A fiend ! a fiend! with many a dart, Glares on me with his bloodshot eye, And aims his missiles at my heart— 0! whither, whither shall I fly? Fly? no! it is no time for flight! I know thy hellish purpose well— Avaunt, avaunt, thou hated sprite, And hie thee to thy native hell! He's gone ! he's gone ! and I am free; He's gone, the faithless braggart liar— He said he'd come to summon me— See there again—my bed's on fire ! Fire ! water ! help ! 0 haste ! I die ! The flames are kindling round my head! This smoke ! I'm strangling! cannot fly— 0 ! snatch me from this burning bed ! There I there again—that demon's there, Crouching to make a fresh attack! See how his flaming eye-balls glare— Thou fiend of fiends, what's brought thee back Back in thy car? For whom? For where? He smiles—he beckons me to come— What are those words thou'st written there? "IN HELL THEY NEVER WANT FOR RUM ! " * In hell they never want for rum. Not want for rum! Read that again— I feel the spell! haste, drive me down Where rum is free ! where revelers reign, And I can wear the drunkard's crown. Accept thy proffer, fiend? I will, And to thy drunken banquet come; Fill the great cauldron from thy still With boiling, burning, fiery rum— There will I quench this horrid thirst! With boon companions drink and dwell, Nor plead for rum, as here I must—■ There's liberty to drink in hell. Thus raved that maniac rum had made- Then starting from his haunted bed— On, on, ye demons, on! he said, Then silent sunk—his soul had fled. Scoffer beware ! he in that shroud Was once a moderate drinker too, And felt as safe—declaimed as loud Against extravagance, as you. * The rum maniac varied. 18 206 EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT NOTT'S LECTURE. And yet ere long I saw him stand Refusing, on the brink of hell, A pardon from his Savior's hand, Then plunging down with fiends to dwell. From thence, methinks, I hear him say, Dash, dash the chalice, break the spell, Stop while you can, and where you may— There's no escape when once in hell. 0 God, thy gracious spirit send, That we, the mocker's snare may fly, And thus escape that dreadful end, That death eternal, drunkards die. No. 15. ------♦♦—----- SKETCH BY THE HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE, WASHINGTON. «>♦!♦ The following brief sketch, from the pen of the Hon. William H. Seward, appeared in the English edition of Dr. Nott's celebrated Temperance Lectures. In re-publishing a part of the ninth and the whole of the eleventh and last of the series, in this volume, it appears to be appropriate that the following just tribute by his pupil, should be published also. E. C. D. Dr. Nott has lived nearly a century. The period of his life comprises the whole of our national history, and even his matured and publicly active years have been more than " three score years and ten." Gifted with rare versatility of talent and industry of habit, he has impressed himself upon the country and the age in many ways, as deeply as other men only aspire to impress themselves in one. Were any historian of our times to begin to catalogue the names of the eminent divines of our country, perhaps the first name that would occur to him would be that of Dr. Nott. Were he to go on and add those of its noted instructors of youth, again the name of Dr. Nott would first suggest itself. Were he then to add those of its Biblical expositors, the same 208 SKETCH BY HON. WM. H. SEWARD. name would again present itself among the foremost. Were he to continue with those of its philosophers and reformers, still the same honored name would recur with like pre-eminence. The pulpit has long counted him as one of its most impres- sive orators. Union College, over which he has so long presided, owes to his organization and management its high prosperity. Thousands who were once his pupils, and are now scattered throughout the Union and the world, useful and prominent in every walk of public and professional life, look back to him with almost filial affection, and are, unconsciously even to themselves, disseminating and perpetuating the influ ences of his teaching. Science has been enriched by his researches; art owes to him more than one valuable invention. Literature has received from him contributions which will endure with the language itself. No great political or moral reform has taken place during the century which is not indebted for a part of its success, to his sagacious and efficient support. A life of irreproachable purity, Christian benevolence and virtue has made him at once a teacher and an exemplar of his generation. His remarkable influence over men, individually or in masses, is in part attributable to keen perception of character and careful study of human nature, but more perhaps to the tendency of his mind toward the examination of subjects in their practical rather than their theoretical bearing. Thus in religion his attention has been given to ethics rather than polemics; in science, to the practical application of laws rather than abstruse investigations of their origin; in politics, to measures and results, rather than theories or controversy; in literature, to its instruction rather than its recondite studies or its elegant pleasures. Few men have in their lives done so much to guide the lives of others in accordance with the dictates of philosophy, and the teachings of Christian revelation. WM. B. CARPENTER, M. D., F. R. S., ETC., ETC, ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. Space will not allow of lengthy extracts from the writings of this distinguished English physician. He states : " Experience has proved that the Temperance Beformation cannot be carried to its required extent, without the coopera- tion of the educated classes, and that this influence can only be effectually exerted by example. There is no case in which the superiority of example over mere precept, is more decided than it is in this. ' I practice total abstinence myself,' is found to be worth a thousand exhortations; and the lamentable failure of the advocates who cannot employ this argument, should lead all those whose position calls upon them to exert their influence to a serious consideration of the claims which their duty to society should set up in opposition to their individual feelings of taste or comfort. * * * 1 believe it to be in the power of the clerical and medical professions combined icith the educated classes, to promote the spread of this principle among the ' masses' to a degree which no other agency can effect." Dr. Carpenter adds : "In his general view of the case, he has the satisfaction of finding himself supported by the recorded opinion of a large body of his professional brethren ; upwards of two thousand of whom, in all grades and degrees, from the court physicians and leading metropolitan surgeons, who are conversant with the wants of the upper ranks of society, to the humble coun- try practitioner, who is familiar with the requirements of the 210 USE and abuse of alcoholic liquors. artisan in his workshop and the laborer in the field, hare signed the following certificate : ' We, the undersigned, are of opinion, ' I. That a very large proportion of human misery, including poverty, disease and crime, is induced by the use of alcoholic or fermented liqm rs as beverages. <2. That the most perfect health is compatible with total abstinence from all such intoxicating beverages, whether in the form of ardent spirits, or as wine, beer, ale, porter, cider, «> I am, Gentlemen, with great respect, Your obedient servant, (Signed,) EDWARD C. DELAVAN. *fTh£ x"ld£rs]iSned. to whom was referred the above communication from Mr. L. L. Delavan, believing that its adoption would subserve the cause of humanity, raise still higher the character of American vessels, and increase the security of our navigation, do hereby recommend, in accordance thereto, that the Board of Underwriters should resolve to hereafter allow a deduc- tion of five per cent upon the nett premium earned by any of the Insurance Companies of this city, on any vessel or vessels insured by them, upon the presentation of a deposition from the commander and mate, that no spiritu- ous liquors had been drank by officers or men, on board their vessel during the passage, voyage, or term for which she has been insured. (Signed,) ABR. OGDEN, ") -r , ~ J. R. HURD, yCommittee New York, Oct. 1, 1834. ADAM TEED WELL, J INSURANCE ON TEMPERANCE SHIPS. 233 At a special meeting of the Board of Underwriters, held at the office of the American Insurance Company, in the city of New York, on the 2d October, 1834, present, Mr. WM. NEILSON, President, and Mr. Abm. Ogden, Vice-President of the Board, and the following mem- bers: Messrs. J. R. Hurd, Messrs. F. Diblee, J. P. Tappan, A. Tredwell, H. Cotheal, N. G. Rutgers, J. C. Delprat, J- K. Hamilton, C. McEvers, senr., J. R- Skiddy, B. McEvers, jun., C. C. Walden, and J. L. Hale, W. R. Jones. B. Balch, Mr. Ogden, chairman of the committee, to whom was referred a commu- nication from E. C. Delavan, Esq., on the subject of temperance ships, made a report recommending that the Insurance Companies of this city make a deduction of five per cent on the premiums arising on ships navigated by crews not using ardent spirits. Whereupon the following resolution was unanimously adopted . Resolved, That the different Marine Insurance Companies in the city of New York, will allow a deduction of five per cent, on the nett premiums which may be taken after this date, on all vessels, and on vessels together with their outfits if on whaling and sealing voyages, terminating without los* provided the master and mate make affidavit, after the termination of tho"'risk, that no ardent spirits had been drank on board the vessel, by the officers and crew, during the voyage or term for which the vessel or outfits were insured. WM. NEILSON, President. Walter R. Jones, Secretary of the Board. List of Insurance Offices, with Officers and Capital. Kame President. Secretary. Capital. New York........ C. McEvers...... T. B. Satterthwaite... 500,000 Ocean ......... A. Ogden....... I. S. Schermerhorn ... 350,000 American........ Wm. Neilson..... P. Hoyt.............. 500,000 r,,ion .......... J. P. Tappan .... W. J.Van Wagenen... 500,000 At antic......... J.L.Hale....... J. R. Pentz.......... 350,000 Neptune, ........ J. R. Hurd...... A. B. Neilson ........ 250,000 National ........ J.K.Hamilton.. W. T. Jones.......... 250,000 Tackson ......... F. Diblee........ L.Gregory........... 400,000 n/w York State,.. J.Bolton ....... O. C. Walden........ 300,000 Commercial...... B. Balch........ E.Hale.............. 300,000 Total capital........................ $3,700,000 Note-At a subsequent meeting of the Board of Underwriters, $1500 was voted font of the funds of the Board), to print for the use of the American sailor, 100,000 Temperance Tracts, adapted to their need, which order was duly executed. 234 INSURANCE ON TEMPERANCE SHIPS. The directors and officers of these companies are as respect- able a body of men as can be collected in any community. They are selected to manage the concerns of these important institutions on account of their intelligence and their good standing in the commercial world. These qualifications are indispensable in order to insure the good management of the affairs committed to them, and in order to command the pub- lic confidence. They are no enthusiasts. They know nothing, in their collective capacity, of parties in politics or sects in religion. They have probably never been called upon to ex- press themselves on any question purely religious, moral or political, nor would they, as directors of these companies, have listened, for a moment, to any suggestion whatever of such a character. These gentlemen, and the stockholders whom they represent, each for himself, acts in these particu- lars according to the dictates of his own conscience. Their only aim, as a body, is, to manage the affairs of their institu- tions with skill and integrity ; and their success, and the high standing they enjoy, both at home and abroad, afford the best possible evidence of their ability and uprightness. In the consideration of the matter in question they inquired only for facts in their bearing upon this question alone. Nothing but the most irresistible evidence in favor of temperance, nothing short of a full assurance that total abstinence from ardent spirits would promote the safety of property on the ocean, could have induced them to embark thus publicly in promoting the great temperance reformation. Let us look for a moment at the facts presented to them. It has been ascertained beyond a dispute that by far the greater part of the shipwrecks and accidents at sea, are occa- sioned, directly or indirectly, by ardent spirits; that vast amounts of property lost, thousands of lives sacrificed, a great share of the insubordination and mutinies may be traced to this cause alone. It was moreover shown satisfactorily, on the testimony of numerous respectable ship owners and mas- ters, that ships can be navigated in all parts of the world, and on the longest voyages, without ardent spirit ; that the sea- men enjoy better health, that they are better able to endure hardships, and that in every respect their comfort and safety are promoted by entire and total abstinence from the article. It was shewn that several hundred ships have already made A GOOD CREATURE OF GOD. 235 voyages, of every description, from this country upon this principle, with the most satisfactory results; and that the superior safety and good order of our temperance ships was exciting attention in Europe. The action had by the Insur- ance Companies fully confirms these statements ; their know- ledge of every thing that relates to commerce being such as would enable them at once to refute any erroneous represent- ations. It may/be set down as certain, therefore, that ardent spirits, in all circumstances and in all climates, on the ocean, are not only unnecessary, but that they are hurtful and dangerous. The insurers of ships in New York publicly offer an induce- ment to all ship owners and seamen to abandon their use. -----------~o<»o<----------- A GOOD CREATURE OP GOD. The Rev. Dr. Guthrie, of Scotland says: " I have heard a man with a bottle of whisky before him have the impudence and assurance to say: ' Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving ;' and he would persuade me that what was made in the still-pot was a creature of God. In one sense it is so ; but in the same sense so is arsenic, so is oil of vitriol, so is prussic acid. Think of a fellow tossing off a glass of vitriol, and excusing himself by saying that it is a creature of God. He would not use many such creatures, that's all I'll say. Whisky is good in its own place. There is nothing like whisky in this world for preserving a man when he is dead. But it is one of the worst things in the world for preserving a man when he is living. If you want to keep a dead man, put him in whisky ; if you want to kill a living man, put the whisky into him. It was a capital thing for preserving the dead admiral, when they put him in a rum puncheon; but it was a bad thing for the sailors when they tapped the cask, and drank the liquor till they left the admiral as he never left his ship— high and dry."—N. Y. Observer. Bread is the staff of life, and liquor the stilts—the former sustaining man, and the latter elevating him for a fall.—N. Y. Observer. No. 19. -------♦•------ LONDON STAR AND LONDON TIMES ON TEMPERANCE, ETC., ETC. »♦--------- [From the London Star.'] "The motives and objects of the Prohibitory Bill promot- ers must of necessity command the high respect and cordial sympathy of all who have at heart the welfare of humanity, for the cancer which they are striving- to extirpate is one of the most virulent that ever ate into the vitals of a nation. No words can be too vivid to paint the hideousness of the myriad evils of which intemperance is the prolific parent. Excess* in the use of strong drink peoples the hospital, the lunatic asylum, the work house, and the gaol. It poisons the bodies, emasculates the minds, empties the pockets, and corrupts the morals of its victims, whose self-wrought destruction of body and soul adds enormously to the bur- thens of sober and decently-conducted taxpayers. The homes which it has desolated may be counted by thousands, and imagination shudders at the contemplation of the huge army of immortal beings hurried by it to perdition. There exists no difference of opinion among rational men with re- gard to the vast power and intense malignity of this foe to human happiness and human progress—the only question *A11 use as a beverage is '"'excess." LONDON STAR AND LONDON TIMES ON TEMPERANCE. 237 is as to the most efficient means of checking its advances and securing its definitive defeat." [From the London Times.] " It may happen that our curious foreigner may in other parts of the world have seen the contortions of Arabs under the influence of hasheesh; he may have seen a Malay furious from bang, a Turk trembling from the effects of opium, or a Chinaman emaciated from inordinate indulgence in the same vice; but for a scene of sterling vice, and lust, and filth, and frenzy, all drawn into one pit, and fermenting under the patronage of the law, he might search the world all over and never find a rival to that object of ambition to re- spectable vintners, and that creation of Middlesex magis- trates—a thriving public house in a low gin-drinking neighborhood." James Houghton, Esq., J. P., of Dublin, alluding to the above quotation from the London Times, remarks: "A more severe, a more terrible, a more just anathema, has, perhaps, never been uttered against the cruel liquor traffic of these countries. It will not do to say that men should drink liquors in moderation. No nation that uses them has ever done so; and the 600,000 drunkards which it has been computed are ever floating in these United King- doms are sufficient evidence that so called moderation in their use is a recommendation which will not and cannot be followed; so that if we would get rid of the fearful drun- kenness which is our shame and our disgrace, some better means must be resorted to. That Christian British Poet, Cowper, born 26th April, 1731, and died 25th April, 1794, well understood the nature of the license system and its effects: a brief extract is given from the Task, Book IV: " Pass where we may, through city or through town, Village or hamlet of this merry land, Though lean and beggar'd, every twentieth pace Conducts the unguarded nose to such a whiff Of stale debauch forth issuing from the sties That LAW HAS LICENSED, as makes temperance reel. 238 LONDON STAR AND LONDON TIMES There sit involved and lost in curling clouds Of Indian fume, and guzzling deep, the boor, The lackey, and the groom. The craftsman there Takes Lethean leave of all his toil; Smith, cobbler, joiner, he that plies the shears, And he that kneads the dough, all loud alike, All learned and all drunk. The fiddle screams Plaintive and piteous, as it wept and wailed Its wasted tones and harmony unheard. Dire is the frequent curse, and its twin sound The cheek-distending oath. 'Tis here they learn The road that leads from competence and peace, To indigence and rapine; till at last Society, grown weary of the load, Shakes her incumbered lap, and casts them out. But censure profits little; vain the attempt To advertise in verse a public pest, That like the filth with which the peasant feeds His hungry acres, stinks, and is of use. Th' excise is fattened with the rich result Of all this riot: The ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touched by the Midas finger of the state Bleed gold for Parliament to vote away. Drink and be mad, then; 'tis your country bids; Gloriously drunk—obey the important call; Her cause demands the assistance of your throats; Ye all can swallow, and she asks no more." Remarks.—Mr. Houghton is right. When Mr. Gladstone was urging the wine bill through Parliament as a Temper- ance measure (I was present at the discussion), the Lon- don Times was with him. During the agitation of the question, however, that influential paper made the admission that " wine is less jx>isonous than gin" thereby coming up in a degree to the standard of the learned chemists of the world. Still the Times is in error: intoxicating wine is not " less poi- sonous than gin." If a glass of gin contains 100 drops of alcohol and a certain number of glasses of wine or any other fermented drinks, contain the same number of drops, the account is balanced, the evil is the same to those drink- ing the same amount of alcohol in wine or in gin. The Duke of Orleans in 1838, who wras at the time, the Commander in Chief of the armies of France, stated that the allowance of one bottle of the light wine of the country ON TEMPERANCE. 239 as a day's ration to the soldier, was the direct cause of most of the intemperance in the army. That this one bottle, as weak as it was, had the stimulating effect on the appe- tite to create the desire for another bottle, and still another, and to satisfy this desire caused by the first bottle given by the government as a ration, the small pay of the soldier was exhausted to purchase additional bottles to satisfy the cravings induced by the alcohol contained in the first; then followed disobedience of orders, crime, court martials and punishment. The first bottle here, like the first glass even/where, is the origin of all the drunkenness of the world, and until it is given up by all classes, drunkenness with all its train of horrors will continue to curse this world. In- toxicating drink, what is it ? why is it so called ? If it takes six glasses of this poison to make a man drunk, what share in producing this madness should attach to the first of the six glasses ? This is a vital question, settled in the minds of some, but not yet settled as it should be, in the minds of all. A learned professor has stated: " The line which divides temperate (so called) from intemperate drink- ing HAS NOT YET BEEN DRAWN." There can be no temperate use of alcohol in any drink, no matter how genteel or aristocratic in name. Any use of such liquor as a beverage, is abuse—is "excess." Let the terms "moderate use" and " excess," be abandoned as im- plying temperance (there is no truth in them), by those who wish to place the reformation on a solid and lasting founda- tion. With due respect, I would ask of those who ridicule the "fallacies" and "follies" of temperance advocates, if they would take upon themselves the responsibility of recom- mending the moderate use of hasheesh or opium, and licens- ing men to vend them for common use. Opium and has- ieesh are acknowledged to be poison, and when used as a 240 LONDON STAR AND LONDON TIMES medicine should, like other poisons, be prescribed with the greatest caution. Alcohol is a poison in the same sense as opium and hasheesh, a slow poison to the more cautious, but a swift one to the incautious. Understanding the question as I now do, and after a study and experimented practice of near forty years, for me to use intoxicating drinks as a beverage is sin. I have no right to judge others, but I would advise every one to examine the ques- tion seriously (aside from preconceived opinions or habits, which are sometimes very blinding), with the light of the Bible and science before them, and if after such examina- tion, they find that God has declared alcohol (and without any qualification) "a mocker," and science has also settled the question that it is a p>oison, it is hoped they will join out- ranks, and with their influence and labors and means as far as convenient, assist in rolling back the mighty flood of in- temperance which now threatens to overwhelm us, and ruin those we hold most dear. With a concerted action— a simultaneous movement in the right direction by the wise and the good, and the republic again united; the nation's debt would soon be wriped out by the increased wealth resulting from true temperance habits. It is thought by many who have studied the question, that a vast body of good men, the excellent of the earth, have in some degree at least, overlooked the one great cause of a large proportion of the destitution, misery and crime in our great cities. It is an evil which if not ar- rested, will exert such a controlling influence as will in time over-ride good influences and culminate in rendering our great cities pandemoniums of vice and corruption. The licensed grog shops before the war, caused about three- fourths of our local taxes, placing a first mortgage on the real and personal property of the state. The good and benevo- lent of our cities should at once turn their attention to this ON TEMPERANCE. 241 great question. By devoting one-tenth of the tax now cre- ated by the license system and contributions to alleviate the sufferings of families, made wretched by its agency, in enlightening the masses and the public mind generally as to the necessity of breaking up that system, they would soon see a change that would astonish them. An experienced physician, when called to a patient, first applys himself to study the disease, its nature and its cause. He does not recommend the continuance of habits which created the disease, but at once says, "stop those habits or you must die." So with our license system, it causes through its effects the destitution of vast numbers, breaks down their characters, and renders them unworthy of the Dallot. It has been stated that every grog-shop controls on the average, at least twelve votes. Look at the vote on the 8th Nov., 1864, in New York. I am no partisan in politics—parties change, and each is glad to receive the rum vote. But let virtuous politicians of all parties (and there are plenty of such), look well into this matter, and do all in their power to purify the ballot- else the rum vote will control the nation, and then its days as a republic are numbered. In closing, we give another extract from the London Times, taken from the N. Y. Observer, of the 15th December, 1864 : The London Times is preaching temperance. The world does move. Hear what the "leading" newspaper of England says of the use of intoxicating liquors: "It is a peculiarity of spirit drinking that money spent upon it is, at tn? best, thrown away, and in general far worse than thrown away. It neither supplies the natural, wants of man, nor offers an adequate substitute for them. Indeed, it is far too favorable a view of the subject to treat the money spent on it as if it were cast into the sea. A great portion of tho harvest of Sweden, and of many other countries is applied to a purpose compared with which it would have been better that the corn had never grown, or that it had been mildewed in the ear. No way so rapid to increase the wealth of nations and the morality of society could be desired, as the utter annihilation of the manufacture of ardent spirits, constituting as they do an infinite waste and an unmixed evil." Good doctrine that, for all countries and times. 21 THE INFLUENCE OF WINE DRINKING, Hundreds of Centuries before the Art of Distilling ivas known. Tantoquo opere, tanto labore et impendio constat, quod hominis mentem mutet ac furorem gignat, millibus tcelerum huic deditis. Translation. (So vast are our efforts, so vast our labors, and so regardless of cost, which we lavish on a liquid—[wine], which deprives man of his reason, and drives him to frenzy and the commission of a thousand crimes.)—Plinv.— London Tern. Spectator. In the early movement in favor of Temperance Reform in this country, distinguished and learned writers denied that wine contained alcohol, therefore could not produce drunken- ness. They were entirely right, if they referred to the un- intoxicating wine, wine a blessing, but wrong if they referred to intoxicating wine, wine a curse when used as a beverage, and the kind of wine which Pliny refers to.—[Ed. FABRICATORS OP FALSIFIED LIQUORS, IN LONDON, GETTING THEIR DUES. De Witt and Wright, the two men concerned in the exten- sive wine frauds in London, were tried at the Central Crimi- nal Court on Wednesday. The jury returned a verdict of guilty ; and previous convictions having been proved against both prisoners, they were each sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude. No. 20. ------*♦------ SCHEDULE OF BIBLE TEXTS RELATIVE TO WINE, Etc., FROM THE LONDON EDITION OF DR. NOTT'S TEMPERANCE LECTURES, CORRECTED BY DR. F. R. LEES. I.—Texts in which the Fruit of the Vine, or some one of its preparations, is spoken of with approbation, in its natural, or at least, unintoxicating state, i. e. the state in which it exists in the cluster where it grows, or the press and the vat in which it is put; the state being evident from the text, or deducible from the products classed with it, or from the sequel of its use, or from its absence being regarded as a loss. (1.)—Hebrew, TIROSH (Vintage Fruit)—Approved. Texts. Genesis Deuteronomy Isaiah Hosea Joel..... Hag-gai , . Nehemiah Psalms.. . Hosea . . . 27 27 11 33 28 24 2 9 1 1 5 4 2 28 37 14 28 51 7 9 2 10 11 ' 11 7(8) 22 Authorized Version. wine new-wine wine new-wine Septuagint. Vulgate. Context. olvoc vindemia vinum Dew and rain, as caus- ing the growth of corn and other bless- ings. Corn failing through drouth, or otherwise by way of judgment. The restoration or in- crease, of natural things. Explanation.—The figures within ( are put in the Nominative Case; but for ) refer to the Hebrew text. Bis (i. e. twice). The general terms oinos and rinum the exceptional renderings, the Case as in the original text has been preserved. to Joel.......... 2 18 19 32 wine . ( 2 Chronicles . . . 32 28 . . 36 17 i < u G2 8 i . 31 12 i i Deuteronomy .. 7 13 i . 9 17 new-wine 9 13 wine Proverbs* .... 3 10 new-wine Isaiah ........ Go 8 . . Joel*......... 2 G 24 15 wine Micah........ sweet-wine 18 12 wine Deuteronomy .. 12 17 .. ii 14 23 i i u 18 4 (i 2 Chronicles.. . 31 5 c i Nehemiah..... 10 37 t i n 10 39 (40) new-wine n 13 5, 12 .. 2 8 (10) wine k 4 11 i i • The Eehre; v words in t lese texts translal otvog put; olvoc vinum vindemiad vinum granum vinum mustum vinum vindemiae vinum Corn, plenty, and re- joicing, as blessings. Vines, grapes, and vats. First fruits, tithes, and offerings. Named as a mere lux- ury. 1 burst out' and ' overflow' signify abundance. fco SCHEDULE OP BIBLE TEXTS. t, 2 to U - £ 0) S g *>S = g-p ffl fa S a ■2 £ £ 5 o c 1= '> K H ^ 1— 00 >C C iO -i2^OC5O(NC0Dl 2,H ■* o X CM i—( i—( i—I i—I ^_ f—i CO r-1 i—iMH i—li—i ,—| h-inMN-fiQl-WOMO" CO (fl-t ifl C5 r-i-*Ci (M HOJC i—iCM-*^^ r-i i—lOl • . . . >> I ! c; . • o -a * o ~ oj C r^ Pa CO — rt 0>~ c +3 - £ £- C <» Prohibition to priests Deuteronomy Numbers . .. 14: 26 i. and Nazarites. 6: 3 (bis) . i ) A feast. 13: 4 ueOvoua siceram ) Prohibition to the mo- u " 7 i i V ther of Sampson. 1 Samuel.... " 14 1: 15 [ikQvaua ^ omne quod inebri- ( I are potest i Drunkenness errone-ously alleged. 69: 12 (17) drunkards ( ol TTtvovreg | rbv olvov qui bibebant vinum Drunkards. Proverbs 20 1 strong drink li(:0n ebrietas u 31 4, 6 i . ii Isaiah ...... 5 11.22 oinepa cbrietatcm Micah...... 2 11 utdvoua ii 28; 7 (thrice) oinepa, utOn ebrietate Drunkenness and woe. ii 29 9 ii ii 56 12 n ii 24 29 9 6(5) potio Bitter in contrast with Deuteronomy siccrara sweet, its original state. Numbers ... 28 7 strong-wine vini Sacrifice. No. 21. SUM! MA.R Y OF THE TEMPERANCE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT; CONDENSED FROM THE WORKS OF DR. F. R. LEES, MEANWOOD LODGE, LEEDS, ENG. 22 SUMMARY. --------♦-♦--------- The Divine "Works and Word, correctly interpreted, must harmonize ; not less on the Temperance question than any other; and since this is a practical topic, connected with morals and religion at many points, the Bible may fairly be expected to have recorded special instructions upon it. When we come to examine it, impartially, in the light of Facts, and correct principles of Interpretation, it is even found to have anticipated the ordinary wisdom of men and the developments of modern Science. The great physicians of Europe — Levy, Llallemand, Lehmann, Chambers, Smith, etc., express the last verdict of Science when they affirm the old Temperance doc- trine that Alcohol is simply a narcotic Poison, and not Food, in any true or ordinary sense of that word. The property of such a poison, is to seduce, mock, deceive ; to generate an ever-increasing appetite for itself amongst men; and to make the soul subject to the craving tyranny of the sensual nature. The express language of Scripture is hut the echo of this conclusion. "Wine is a mocker." "Be not deceived thereby." The cry of the drunkard is, " They have stricken me, hut I felt it not. I will seek it yet again." The voice of a warning Wisdom is, "Look not upon the Wine, when it is red j when it giveth its eye in the eup," (marks of fermen- tation) j for at last it stingefh like a serpent." Nay, more, in three plain texts, the only word in Hebrew for ' Poison' (iihe- mah)—tho word six times so translated —is applied to thia 256 THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. very species of drink which " stingeth like a serpent." The evil wine was " like the poison of dragons " (Deut. 32 : 33.) The princes made the King "sick with poison of wine." (Hos. 7:5). And a woe is hurled against him who giveth such drink to his neighbour — who " putteth thy poison to him "— (Hah. 2 : 15)—the consequence heing that God's poisoned cup of wrath (hiiemaii) shall he turned to him. Is it not pure insanity to suppose that such an element is identical with the contents of " the cup of blessing ? " The fads of the Bible are not less clear and decisive as regards the evils of Drinking.—1st. God uses intoxicating wine as the constant symbol of wickedness and punishment. Hhemah is the poison of the cup of wrath—the maddening element — which is to the soul what physical poison is to the body. From Moses to John this expressive symbolism pre- vails. 2d. God shows us in the biography of his People, how prophets, patriarchs, and Priests fell into sin " through wine" and were " swallowed up " of strong drink. 3d. God teaches us that the great cause of perversion in his People, as Church and Nation, after centuries of varied education and discipline, of unexampled laws and privileges, social, sanitary, and poli- tical,— was " the love of drink." " What more could I do for you?" saith the Lord. "Why, then, when I looked for grapes, do I find poisonous (or wild) grapes ? " The answer of the prophets is still the same. Amos sums up the whole in four transgressions; and the four resolve themselves into one cause. (1). The Judges passed unjust verdicts, to get fines for drink to be consumed in the holy places. (2). They com- manded the prophets to cease, unless they would prophecy of wine and strong drink. (3). They tempted the Nazarites to break their pledge, because their sobriety was a standing rebuke to themselves. (4). They cared not for the "affliction of Joseph," but drank wine in bowls. (Compare Amos 2 : 6- THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 257 Micah2:ll; and Isaiah 5:). For these sins, it is said, "Therefore shall they go into captivity ;" and it is remarka- ble that they learned sobriety at last in the Court of Cyrus, the Magian teetotaler, where royal fashion and the Persian philosophy co-operated to that end. In this sublime history we see evil constantly associated with intoxicating drink; and exhibited as the hindrance to God's own teaching. How vain, then, to expect that our laws and crotchets will triumph over this sin where His failed. The church can only cure Intemperance by banishing its cause. With equal clearness are the blessings and benefits of Absti- nence exhibited. 1. Paradise was not wrongly constructed ; yet, amidst the perfect adaptations of food and drink to the wants of our perfect originals, alcohol found no place. To you, "it shall be for meat," applied to grain and fruit—not to that artificial and fiery product which results from their fer- mentative destruction. 2. God appoints or approves in other ways, the practice of Abstinence, both by Individuals and Societies. "In the beginning," as the Lord argued, concerning marriage, the modern system was not. The first of men and the fairest of women, were constituted teetotalers. Samson, the strong man, Samuel the Holy founder of the School of the Prophets, and John, more than a prophet, were striking examples of God's favor upon the system. It could not be for no reason in the nature of things, that Teetotalism was made the antecedent to physical power, to mental intelli gence, and to spiritual purity. 3. The Nazarites were » Society of Religious Abstainers, whose pledge was drawn out by Cod, to do honor to Him; and were ranked on the same level with his Prophets. 4. The Rechabites were probably voluntary imitators of them ; outside Kenites or Arabians ; and were highly commended by the Almighty for their fidelity to the pledge. 4. The Bible implies that Teetotalism is a 258 THE scripture argument. physiological law or truth. The case of Adam and Eve involves this, as part of the best possible condition. The Nazarites, Daniel, etc., prove it by their experience, for they were " ruddier, and fairer, and fatter in flesh" than the drink- ing Jews, who were black and ' withered.' But Samson's case is still more emphatic, since an angel was twice sent with instructions as to abstinence, before the birth of the strong- one. Dr. Smith's Experimental Researches say : "Alcohol greatly lessens muscular tone." Tom Sayers and Heenan, the well-mated champions of the Prize Ring, are obliged to train on Teetotalism. These, then, are but reverberations from a truth well known in Heaven nearly 3,000 years ago. The Rechabites, again, have their faithfulness made the ground of their perpetuity as a race—a promise founded in nature, and vindicated by their multiplication and continuance to the present day. 5. God's Remedy for Intemperance, when that vice interfered with the services of the sanctuary, was of total and everlasting abstinence. And what was neither needless, nor unwise, nor extreme in God, cannot be so with man. 6. Abstinence was taught as a necessary phy- sical preparation for moral purity and spiritual efficiency: (a.) In the cases of Samuel and John the Baptist, (b.) In the case of the Priests (Lev. 10), that they might distinguish holy from profane, (c.) In the case of the Nazarites, that they might illustrate at once, and voluntarily, the virtues of self-denial and purity. The law of prohibition to the Priests means this : "as men do your own work your own way, but while bearing my insignia, and acting as my servants, the work shall be done in your natural state, free from strong- drink." That to the Nazarites implies that " as I accept sacrifices only that have no spot and taint, so I accept your living sacrifice only on condition that you are unpolluted with the poison and the mocker." (d.) To this we may add the significant advice " It is not for Kings to drink wine." THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 259 In the common Version of the Bible, even, there is but one text that gives God's apparent sanction to intoxicating wine, namely, Deut. 14 : 26, where ' strong drink' is named as a permissible element in a sacred feast. The answer is conclu- sive— that no word for 'strong' exists in the original He- brew. The term there is SneicaR — the original of saccar, sugar, and other terms. It denoted Palm-wine, which exists in various states, unfermented, sweet, and syrupy, as well as intoxicating and ' bitter.' Hence, as Bishop Lowth ob- serves, the antithesis of Isaiah—"Thy shechar (sweet- wine) shall become 'bitter'—i.e., deteriorated. About 60 texts of the authorized version refer to wine (or what is sup- posed to be wine) with approbation, where the context shows or implies it to he a natural or unfermented product. Not more than 52 texts exist which can be proved, by the context, to refer to intoxicating wine — and not one of these is con- nected with the Divine blessing. On the contrary, one half of them describe it as an evil, as a mocker and stupefier, or prohibit it either in general, or in special cases. These special implications of the evil quality of a particu- lar kind of wine, cannot be got rid of by saying that the Bible warns against excess, and thus implicitly sanctions a lesser use. In reality, it does both warn against the use, and the excess. But the principle of the objection is false. It is the same as to say, that if you are prohibited from kil- ling a man, as in the Decalogue, you are allowed to maltreat him short of killing ! But not only does the Old Testament commend abstinence and condemn drink, the New Testament frequently and distinctly exhorts to it; and Church history furnishes illustrious examples of it in the first ages. It was, as Prof. Jowett admits, ranked "among the counsels of per- fection." The Bishop of Ephesus — Timotheus — was an extreme Abstainer, and seemed to need an apostolic prescrip- tion to induce him to use " a little wine " even as a medicine. 260 THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. What sort of wine it was, we do not know; but we do know that Athenaeus says of the Sweet-Lesbian, called protropos, it was " very good for the stomach." (ii. § 24). The fact that teetotalism prevailed throughout the East for thousands of years—that it was a part of the discipline of the Oriental priesthoods from Egypt to India, that it pervaded Judea in the time of our Lord, and was manifested in the sympathetic sects of the Essenes and Therapeutae,— are cir- cumstances which comjyel the impartial critic to give a plain and literal sense to the language of the Scriptures, when it at once corresponds with historical practices and scientific verities. The presumption is strong against the supposition that our Lord would transform innocent water into intoxicat- ing wine — an element that the Essenes called "Fool's physic," which after Christians designated as the "inven- tion of the evil one"—though, as Augustin witnesses, they readily drank the juice of grapes; which the Saint somewhat illogieally condemns as inconsistent ! All that our blessed Lord did, was to discountenance the Dualistic mistakes of the Persian philosophy, with a foresight of the Manichcean revi- val of it, that there was essential evil in matter, and therefore in Marriage and in Wine. But as his countenance of a pure marriage gives no sanction to a corrupt one, neither does his conversion of pure water into pure wine, involve the slightest approval of that essentially impure and corrupt element which is "a mocker," and " wherein is excess." Here, again, we find the true modern conception anticipated by Divine Wis- dom : in that miracle which, though the first in order of time, was recorded only in the last of the Gospels, when the error it meets was creeping into the church. All the critical mistakes of those who have vainly striven to enlist the Bible on the side of sensuality, arise from the accep- tance of false jyrinciples of Interpretation, and from ignorance of Facts, no text referring to intoxicating wine can have any THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. 261 validity, unless it be associated with Divine sanction. No such text exists — but many exist associated with varied evil. Such wine, no doubt, was permitted to be used, by both good and bad men, but so were divorce, polygamy, concubinage, slavery, permitted. This was "for the hardness of their hearts," not because the practice was good. The sole critical argu- ment of the Tipler is this : that the word ' wine ' is the same in connexion with the drunkenness of Noah, and the blessing of God upon wine in the Psalms, etc. Quite so: but that does not argue sameness of nature or quality. ' Man,' ' spirit' •angel,' 'wife,' etc., are, like 'wine,' general words — but for that very reason cannot denote the specific differences amongst the class of things to which they are applied: as good or bad, pure or corrupt. Ignorance of facts is displayed in the common assertion that wine signifies " the fermented juice of the grape." The ancients did not, and could not, know anything of such a conception, inasmuch as they were ignorant of the process of fermentation itself. Hence the old Hebrew books—as the Gemara and the Chaldee paraphrase— speak of " the wine (yayin) which Messiah shall drink," as being "reserved in its grapes from the beginning ;" a striking comment upon the language of our Lord at His Last Supper. Hence also, in the thirteenth century, the great logician and theologian, Thomas Aquinas, decides that grape juice is of the specific nature of wine (vinum), and may be used in the celebration of the Eucharist. The definition attempted to be palmed upon us, therefore, is false in history, and confounds the genus with the species : the ' Man ' with ' Negro." The original Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek, are not less clearly in favor of Abstinence than the common version. The Hebrew has many distinct words, which are all confused into the English phrases — ' wine ' — ' new-wine '— ' sweet- wine '— 'flagons of wine'—and 'wine on the lees.' The 262 THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. real distinctions are as follows: 1. TirosH — a collective term for ' the fruit of the vine ' in its natural state, from the early " tirosh in the cluster " to the richer " blessing within it"—of the full, ripe grapes, ready for consumption or use. Hence Micah's phrase, " Thou shalt tread tirosh, but shall not drink yayin " (its juice), for the fruit should be withered. (6:15.) It is thus associated as a thing of growth and of the fields, with corn and orchard-fruit (yitzhar — not oil): dependent upon the dew, rain, etc. In the Latin, French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions, it is generally, but wrongly translated mustum, mosto, etc. It is no where im- plied to be either intoxicating, or liquid. " Whoredom, wine, and new-wine "— does not make sense ; but Idolatry, Ine- briety, and Luxury" does — represented by "Whoredom, Wine, and Grapes," which "take away the heart." The words in Prov. 3 :10, and Joel 2 : 24, translated ' bursting and ' overflowing,' respectively, in the original signify no more than abundance. 2. iEsHiSHAH, ' sweet cake,' is the word translated ' flagons- of-wine — but erroneously, as all scholars now concede. 3. Shemarim, in Isaiah from Shamar ' to preserve,' means 'preserves,' well refined — not 'dregs' or 'wine.' It only occurs once in the supposed sense of wine. The older trans- lators regarded it as " sweet and dainty things." 4. Mesech signifies ' mixture ' simply, which might be good or bad. The mingled-wine of Wisdom (boiled grape juice mixed with water), or the wine of Sensuality. " Who hath woe? They that are mighty to mingle sweet drink" with inebriating drugs. 5. Yayin is the generic term for wine, including the 'pure blood of the grape,' presorvod-juice, and the fermented and drugged juice. It is applied in all these varied ways, "They washed their garments in wine." " They gathered wine." "Wine is a mocker ;" it stingeth like a serpent." the scripture argument. 263 u Their wine is the poison of dragons." No where do we find divine sanction associated with yayin, where the context shows it to be intoxicating. This word being general, necessitated in the latter ages of Jewish literature, the use of two or three specific terms to indicate particular kinds of wine. As for example — 6. Hhamer : fresh ' foaming '-wine in its first sense. But since the wine when it ferments, becomes red, the idea of red- ness got associated with the Chaldee use of the word : and perhaps ' thickness ' also. It is the word related to the foam of the sea, and the bitumen of pits. 7. Ausis, from asas, ' to tread,' signifies the same as the classic protropos — ' first trodden' or ' running '-wine. "The mountains shall drop-down ausis." 8. Sobhe is ' boiled-wine.' It is the sapa of the Romans, the sabe of the French and Italians. It was the luxurious- drink of the rich : but of course not intoxicating. 9. Oinos is the generic Greek word corresponding with the Hebrew yayin, and is applicable to all sorts of wine. The context alone can determine the specific nature of the wine. 10. Gleukos only occurs once in the New Testament, and is not associated with any Divine approval. It is, classically the name of rich-grape-juice, or unfermented wine; perhaps in some cases, for initially fermented wine. The New Testament distinctions and instructions are not less in harmony with Teetotalism than those of the Hebrew Bible. 1. Engkratia — self-control — is the word four times translated ' Temperance ' — and in its other forms, twice temperate and once continent. In 1 Cor. 7 :9 ; 9; 25, it has evidently a negative application equal to abstaining. 2. Epi-eikees : Forbearing — translated only once mode- ration; thrice gentle ; once patient. 3. Sophroneo — sedate, discreet—translated sober—s&- 264 toe scripture argument. ber-minded— and in a right-mind. This is mental ' sobriety' — or the state when we can obey reason, and resist appetite. This can have nothing to do with drinking, which at best is but the gratification of a sensuous appetite. Mental temperance being thus expressed by the preceding terms, we shall want a word for Abstinence in regard to the body. This is found in a compound formed from the negative particle nee (not), and pio (to drink) = neephb. Neepho occurs in the Apostolic exhortations seven times; in its adjective form (neephalios), thrice; in such peculiar con- nections, that it seems absurd to put upon it any secondary or metaphorical meaning. The primary sense of the word, beyond all cavil, is that of Abstinence ; its secondary sense of 'wakeful,' being derived from the condition in which peo- ple are who abstain from narcotics. " Without doubt," says Dean Alford, "the word signifies Abstinence, but Dr. Lees is bound to prove that it means total abstinence ! " Now we are bound to prove, no more than this — that it means not-drink- ing; and that the Apostles use it in that, its primary sense. Josephus, one of their contemporaries says of the Priests — "They abstained from wine"—(apb akratou neephontes). So Paul and Peter, who use the word along with the proper words for mental temperance and for watchfulness. Thus :— I Tim. 3:2. Be (neephalion) abstinent (teetotal), sound minded. I Thes. 5 : 6. Let us watch and drink-not neephomen. I Pet. 4:7. Be so\md~minded, and abstinent unto prayer.* I Pet. 5 : 8. (Neepsate) Drink not, be vigilant, because your adversary seeketh whom he may di'ink-down (kata-pie)." Why Josephus, Philo, Plutarch, and Porphyry should mean abstinence from drink by this word, but, as some strangely con- *So Tertullian (De Jeju.) By prayer, sobriety, and abstinence." THE SCRIPTURE AUGl'MENT. 265 tend, the Apostles signify drinking a little, we will not in- quire : for we will not follow perversity and appetite into the Den of Idols. The objection that the Deacons are not to be " given towards much wine," and the Deaconesses (aged-women) "not to be enslaved to much wine," falls before the fact that unfermented wine was allowed to women and to men after a certain age.* If it be said, Why warn against excess in that which does not intoxicate ? — we answer, why does Solomon inform us that " To eat much honey is not good ? "—if no one ever did. This is the fallacy of interpreting the language of the ancients by the customs of the moderns. Pliny and many others show us that the abuse of syrupy and sweet-wines was a special vice of the day. Lucian has this passage : — " I came, by Jove, as those who drink gleukos, require an emetic "—before (hey drink again. Josephus says of the Jewish priests, that on account of their office, they " had prescribed to them a double degree of purity." So Paul deemed a special and extreme form of Ab- stinence proper to be urged upon a Bishop : just as the ' Law Book of the 'Ante-Nicene Church ' commands that a Bishop shall not enter a Tavern except on necessity. To this end, Paul uses a word, which is equivalent to the modern pledge— "discountenance the drinking usages"—viz., namely, wee, (not) — par—(over, or in company)—oinon (wine). In I Tim. 3: 2-3; and Titus 1 : 7-8 ; in connexion with being no- drinker, sound-minded, and no-striker, it is commanded that a Bishop shall be mee-par-oinos—" not near wine "—not in its company. Thus, it will he seen, even from the bare summary of the case, that the varied language of the Old and the New Testa- * Titus 2:2, and 1 Tim. 3:11, command that the Elders and their wives shall be ncephalious (abstinent.)—i. c., no-drinkers of another sort of wine. 23 266 THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT. merit, and the known-facts of antiquity, conspire to establish every portion of our Critical Theory : thus does each separate fact and phrase find its fitting place in the Temple of Truth ; and thus, too, is it made manifest that Holy Scripture con- curs with moral and physical Science in teaching abstinence from narcotic poisons — a doctrine which needs to be reiterated afresh from the pulpits of Christendom, until the torpid con- science is aroused, and the great obstacle to the progress and triumph of the Gospel is removed out of the way. " Where- fore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil-day; and having done all — to stand." MR. R. COBDEX, M. P. Mr. Cobden's sympathy for the abstinence cause is well known. At Bradford he once made a speech, of which the following is a portion :— lrou are all aware, or, at least, some of you, that out of the 65